We manufacture recombinant antibodies by cloning antibody genes into high-yield expression vectors and introducing these vectors into hosts.

Recombinant antibodies can succeed where other manufacturing methods often fall short. This method isn’t limited by low reproducibility and genetic drift, which lead to variations in the final antibody. Additionally, the generation of antibodies targeting more difficult targets such as toxins, nucleotides, and membrane-bound proteins is possible.

Our recombinant antibodies deliver many advantages, including batch-to-batch consistency, confirmed specificity, and ease of scalability, so that you can progress your research faster.

What are recombinant antibodies?

Recombinant antibodies are typically a form of monoclonal antibody, where instead of being produced from a hybridoma cell line, the antibody producing gene has been isolated and is used to manufacture the antibody.

They are often developed by either sequencing or cloning the antibody producing gene and inserting that gene into an expression vector. That vector is then either transfected or stably integrated into a cell line, which is used to produce the antibody.

Recombinant antibodies can be produced as monoclonal antibodies, ie as a single antibody molecule, or as multiclonal antibodies, a mixture of multiple recombinant monoclonal antibodies. They can also be produced as chimeric antibodies where the antigen binding part of the antibody is cloned onto a backbone from a different species, for instance to convert a recombinant rabbit monoclonal antibody to a mouse or chicken monoclonal antibody.

The advantages of recombinantly manufactured antibodies

Our recombinantly manufactured antibodies provide:

• Unrivaled batch-to-batch consistency
• Confirmed specificity due to industry-leading validation
• Ease of scalability and long-term supply
• High-throughput in vitro manufacture of recombinant antibodies.

Unrivaled batch-to-batch consistency

Due to the use of a unique set of genes, recombinant antibody production is controlled and reliable. This leads to antibodies with high batch-to-batch consistency, meaning you can achieve highly reproducible results and move your project forward faster.

^{Figure 1. Batch-to-batch reproducibility in the localization of PD-L1 in FFPE human placenta across five batches of our anti-PD-L1 [28-8] recombinant rabbit monoclonal antibody (ab205921). IHC was performed manually using a Biocare Decloaking Device and Universal HIER antigen retrieval reagent (ab208572). The primary antibody was incubated overnight at 4°C, followed by goat anti-rabbit secondary antibody and HRP-linked anti-goat polymer antibody (ab209101). DAB was used as a chromogen with a Hematoxylin counterstain.}

The K_D value is a quantitative measure of antibody affinity. The lower the K_D value, the higher the affinity of the antibody. Analysis of K_D values of our recombinant anti-PDL1 antibody shows that its affinity remains high across five different batches (Table 1).

Table 1. Analysis of K_D values for five different batches of our recombinant anti-PD-L1 antibody [28-8] (ab205921).

Improved sensitivity and confirmed specificity due to industry-leading validation

To ensure specificity, our recombinant antibodies undergo industry-leading validation. This includes over 4,400 with knock-out validation, so you can move your research forward faster.

And because the selection process for the desired clone occurs at both the hybridoma and recombinant cloning stages, we can select antibodies with the most favorable qualities for you.

Our recombinant antibodies have a remarkably high affinity, with K_D values in the picomolar (10^-10–10^-12) range. High-affinity antibodies allow greater sensitivity in assays as they bind strongly to the antigen and maintain this bond better under challenging conditions compared to low-affinity antibodies.

The following example demonstrates the differences in specificity between recombinant antibodies and other antibody types:

^{​​Figure 2. Our recombinant anti-GRIM19 [EPR4471(2)] (ab109017) antibody (left) being tested on knock-out and wild-type samples against our monoclonal anti-GRIM19 [6E1BH7] (ab110240) antibody.}

Rapid, high-throughput, scalable manufacturing

Recombinant antibody manufacturing relies on cloning antibody genes into expression vectors. Thus, antibody expression can be performed at any scale, allowing for a guaranteed supply and, therefore, providing you with continuity of supply and peace of mind for projects of all sizes. This makes recombinant antibodies an excellent solution for long-term studies or when using the same antibody across multiple samples.

Once the antibody-producing genes have been isolated, high-throughput in vitro manufacture can be performed. For antibodies generated using our phage display technology, the gene encoding the antibody can be isolated using an animal-free procedure.