Monoclonal
Antibodies
by
Molecular
Biotechnology -
Researchers have long dreamed of harnessing the specificity of antibodies for a variety of uses that require the targeting of drugs and other treatments to particular sites in the body. It is this use of antibodies as targeting devices that led to the concept of the "magic bullet", a treatment that could effectively seek and destroy tumour cells and infectious agents wherever they resided.
The major limitation in the therapeutic use of antibodies is producing a useful antibody in large quantities. Initially, researchers screened myelomas which are antibody secreting tumours for the production of useful antibodies. But they lacked a means to programme a myeloma to produce an antibody to their specification.
