Use Yeast Display Technology in Antibody Discovery and Affinity Maturation
Antibody engineering has long been a huge promising industry that attracts the attention of
scientists and researchers. It consists of a great number of branches, among which, there is the
necessary one, yeast display.
Yeast display is a technique that has been wildly used in the field of antibody discovery. This
technique was first published by the laboratory of Professor K. Dane Wittrup and was sold to
Abbott Laboratories in 2001.
A protein of interest is displayed as a fusion to the Aga2p protein on the surface of yeast. The
Aga2p protein is naturally used by yeast to mediate the contacts between cells during yeast cell
mating. As such, display of a protein via Aga2p projects the protein away from the cell surface,
minimizing potential interactions with other molecules on the yeast cell wall. The use of magnetic
separation and flow cytometry in conjunction with a yeast display library is a highly effective
method to isolate high affinity protein ligands against nearly any receptor through directed
evolution.
Compared with other in vitro evolution methods, yeast display does much better in eukaryotic
expression and processing, quality control mechanisms of the eukaryotic secretory pathway,
minimal avidity effects, and quantitative library screening through fluorescent-activated cell
sorting (FACS). Yeast is a eukaryotic organism that allows for complex post-translational
modifications to proteins that no other display libraries are able to provide.
Scientists in Creative Biolabs has constructed a fully-human, nonimmune library for de novo
discovery of therapeutically relevant antibodies. This library consists of 109 human antibody scFv
fragments from 16 donors, which have been cloned and expressed on the surface of yeast. In
combination with the UltraffTM Yeast Display Technology, nanomolar-affinity scFvs are routinely
obtained with flow cytometry or magnetic bead based methods. The yeast library can be amplified
1010 fold without measurable loss of clonal diversity, which means indefinite expansion of the
library. All scFv clones can be assessed directly on the yeast cell surface by immunofluorescent
labeling and flow cytometry, avoiding separating steps of subcloning, expression and purification.
These have demonstrated that they can be applied for high-throughput antibody isolation for
proteomic study.
In addition, Creative Biolabs has created the next-generation, fully-human, yeast display scFv
library HuscL-YDP for de novo discovery of therapeutic antibodies. scFv is the most suitable
protein to be displayed on yeast surface due to its relatively small size and broad applications. Its
library is based on two liters of blood from approximately 20 donors of varying ages and genetic
backgrounds. The yeast-based library consists of over 109 clones that, in combination with the
UltraffTM Yeast Display Technology, can be screened with flow cytometric or magnetic bead based
methods.
About Creative Biolabs
Creative Biolabs is a leading custom service provider that has extensive experience in various
antibody production and engineering fields. Its service portfolio includes mouse antibody
production using hybridoma technology, human, monkey, rabbit, chicken, dog, llama and camel
monoclonal antibody production using various antibody library technologies, including phage
display, bacterial display and yeast display.
https://medium.com/@candyjkswift/use-yeast-display-technology-in-antibody-discovery-and-
affinity-maturation-75e8dfc23aa3#.hjmgj4rie