Affinity isolation of antigen-specific circulating B cells for generation of phage display-derived human monoclonal antibodies.

A method is described for affinity isolation of antigen-specific circulating B cells of interest for subsequent generation of immune antibody phage display libraries. This approach should overcome the problem of low yields of monoclonal antibodies of interest in the libraries generated from peripheral blood lymphocytes caused by the low abundance of antigen-specific B cells in the circulation. The preselection of B cells is based on the specificity of the surface Ig receptor and is accomplished using the antigen of interest conjugated to magnetic beads. This method should significantly increase the frequency of antibody phage particles of interest in the library and allow for efficient isolation monoclonal antibodies with the predefined specificity.