Functional antibody screening with micro-capsules - proof of concept with anti-EGFR

We will pilot a method for screening 106-108 candidate antibodies for functional activity. If successful, we will have established proof-of-concept towards a platform with broad utility in drug discovery across multiple diseases. Future work could extend the platform beyond antibodies to screening other cell-cell interactions. Our work specifically proposes a strategy for overcoming an “affinity bottleneck” in antibody screening, by directly screening antibodies for functional activity at high throughput. In the pilot phase, we will evaluate success of the strategy by isolating a known functional ⍺EGFR from a large pool. If successful, this work would set the stage for a full proposal in which we would incorporate large yeast antibody libraries and/or direct plasma cells screening, on novel receptor targets.