Monoclonal Antibody Facility

The Monoclonal Antibody Facility (MAF) provides newly generated custom monoclonal antibodies and purification from user's or commercially available hybridomas, plus additional services to researchers at MD Anderson and beyond. 

The main focus of the facility is:

To generate high quality non-commercial available monoclonal antibodies for specific applications (including basic and translational research or for therapeutic purposes) by providing expert advise and quality service on project design, discussing the proper approach, while saving time and money for researchers in a timely manner.

Generating in-home antibodies minimize the difficulties to deal with IDR and patent issues that the researchers may face on their discoveries.  

Getting Started

• Investigators wishing to employ the services of the MABF should contact Long Vien at lvien@mdanderson.org (713-563-3223), Roberto Rangel at rrangel@mdanderson.org (832-750-1663)  or Laura Bover at lbover@mdanderson.org (713-563-3301) to set up a meeting to plan the project strategy with no obligation to proceed.
• In addition, investigators will be guided in how to provide a completed MAF services request from iLab.
• Letters of support or collaboration for grant applications can also be provided in advance.
  

Pricing

Quotes are generated based on individual projects requirements. Please contact us for details.

What Are Monoclonal Antibodies?

By definition, antibodies are proteins (immunoglobulins) secreted by one type of immune cells (plasma B cells). Each B cell secretes only one type of antibody, targeting certain substance (from bacteria, tumor cells, fungus, etc) defined as "antigen", that invades, for instance, a mammalian body. However, this immune response is called "polyclonal" because multiple antibodies from each single B cell, circulate in the blood, some of them useful to eliminate the antigen, some of them not.

In the early 1970s, the idea of producing in vitro identical antibodies derived from a single B cell (monoclonal) and specific to a given antigen, arised among the scientific community. This was successfully accomplished by Georges Köhler, César Milstein and Niels Kaj Jerne, who created the process of producing monoclonal antibodies in 1975, sharing the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 for the discovery.

The key idea was to fuse (by chemical or physical methods) an immortal myeloma cell line that has the ability to grow in vitro, with healthy antibody secreting B-cells from an immunized mouse, forming a hybrid cell (hybridoma) that shares the properties of both parental cells: to secret one specific antibody and to be immortal. Thanks to that discovery it is possible to create in vitro monoclonal antibodies against (almost) any antigen, with the property of specifically bind to it.

mAbs have become an essential tool in biochemistry, molecular biology and medicine. Basic, translational and clinical researchers have been taking advantage of them for a wide range of uses, such as immunoprecipitation, immunohistochemistry, western-blot, ELISA, preclinical and clinical therapeutic purposes, all processes in which our Core Facility has expertise and success.

Core Grant Citation

This shared resource is partially funded by NCI Cancer Center Support Grant P30CA16672. Publications using MAF services must cite this grant. Autorship would be appreciated it, if the Core's participation and input merit it.