Technology
Single-domain antibodies: naturally derived antibody fragments
In addition to conventional antibodies consisting of heavy and light chains, animals from the camelidae family (i.e. camels, llamas, and alpacas) produce a particular class of antibodies that are devoid of light chains.
These heavy chain-only antibodies (HcAbs) undergo normal selection and maturation by the animals’ immune system. For this reason, HcAbs can exhibit high affinities and serum stability. Single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) are the variable domains of such HcAbs.
In vivo maturation, combined with a small size and uniquely shaped paratope make single-domain antibodies ideal targeting molecules for a wide variety of applications, ranging from simple detection to drug delivery. Single-domain antibodies are also referred to as VHHs or Nanobodies (trademark Ablynx Sanofi).
QVQ provides expertise in each step of the single-domain antibody development trajectory. The services range from immunizations and generating phage-display libraries, through biopanning and screening up to bio-informatics, production, purification and quality control. All lead development services are conduced according to carefully validated standard operating procedures.
In addition, QVQ offers high-quality off-the-shelf single-domain antibodies for research. Upon request, all single-domain antibodies can be equipped with our proprietary C- direct tag that allows directional conjugation to various labels.