Fusion partner for production of monoclonal rabbit antibodies
AssigneeEpitomics, Inc.
InventorsRobert Pytela, Weimin Zhu, Yaohuang Ke, Qi Qian, Harry C. Au
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Abstract
The invention provides a rabbit-derived immortal B-lymphocyte capable of fusion with a rabbit splenocyte to produce a hybrid cell that produces an antibody. The immortal B-lymphocyte does not detectably express endogenous immunoglobulin heavy chain and may contain, in certain embodiments, an altered immunoglobulin heavy chain-encoding gene. A hybridoma resulting from fusion between the subject immortal B-lymphocyte and a rabbit antibody-producing cell is provided, as is a method of using that hybridoma to produce an antibody. The subject invention finds use in a variety of different diagnostic, therapeutic and research applications.
Claims20
A hybrid cell produced by fusing:
- i. an antibody-producing cell of a rabbit with ii. a rabbit-derived immortal B-lymphocyte, wherein immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) mRNA expression of the rabbit-derived immortal B-lymphocyte is not detectable by RT-PCR and said rabbit-derived immortal B-lymphocyte does not detectably express immunoglobulin heavy chain.
A method of producing a monoclonal antibody comprising:
- culturing a hybrid cell produced by fusing:
- i. an antibody-producing cell of a rabbit with ii. a rabbit-derived immortal B-lymphocyte, wherein immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) mRNA expression of the rabbit-derived immortal B-lymphocyte is not detectable by RT-PCR and said rabbit-derived immortal B-lymphocyte does not detectably express immunoglobulin heavy chain,
- thereby producing a monoclonal antibody.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.