Method for identifying lineage-related antibodies

A method comprising:

• obtaining the amino acid sequences of at least the CDR3 regions of a plurality of immunoglobulin heavy chains and a plurality of immunoglobulin light chains from an individual that has been immunized with an antigen;
• grouping said immunoglobulin heavy chain sequences so that immunoglobulin heavy chain sequences within each group are related to one another by lineage, wherein said grouping the immunoglobulin heavy chain sequences comprises comparing the heavy chain CDR3 sequences to one another and wherein the immunoglobulin heavy chains within each group have the same heavy chain CDR3 amino acid sequence and the different groups contain heavy chains that have different heavy chain CDR3 amino acid sequences;
• grouping said immunoglobulin light chains sequences so that immunoglobulin light chain sequences within each group are related to one another by lineage, wherein said grouping the immunoglobulin light chain sequences comprises comparing the heavy chain CDR3 sequences to one another and wherein the immunoglobulin light chains within each group have the same light chain CDR3 amino acid sequence and the different groups contain light chains that have different light chain CDR3 amino acid sequences;
• selecting a single heavy chain from each of a plurality of the heavy chain groups and a single light chain from each of a plurality of the light chain groups to produce a plurality of candidate heavy chains and a plurality of candidate light chains;
• and
• testing said candidate heavy chains and said candidate light chains in a pairwise manner for binding to said antigen.