Traditionally, antibodies have been developed either in vivo, by injecting animals with the relevant antigens, or in vitro, by screening large laboratory-constructed libraries to isolate the relevant antibodies. We are now developing a third, in silico, approach of discovering antibodies, which will enable cheaper and faster ways of creating these molecules, thus creating novel opportunities for diagnostics and therapeutics.
We have recently provided a proof of principle of this rational design approach by showing that it is possible to stop the production of neurotoxic particles in Alzheimer's disease by binding the Abeta peptide with computer-generated antibodies.
RELEVANT PAPERS
Rational Design of Antibodies Targeting Specific Epitopes within Intrinsically Disordered Proteins Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2015, 112, 9902.
Selective Targeting of Primary and Secondary Nucleation Pathways in Abeta42 Aggregation using a Rational Antibody Scanning Method Sci. Adv. 2017, 3, e1700488.
E mv245@cam.ac.uk
T 01223 763873
W www-vendruscolo.ch.cam.ac.uk