# A rapid cell-free expression and screening platform for antibody discovery

Article · Hunt AC, Vögeli B, Hassan AO, Guerrero L, Kightlinger W, Yoesep DJ, Krüger A, DeWinter M, Diamond MS, Karim AS, Jewett MC

- Archive id: doi:10.1038/s41467-023-38965-w
- Published: 2023-07-03
- Venue: Nature communications
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38965-w
- PMID: 37400446
- PMCID: PMC10318062
- Citations: 74
- Source URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38965-w
- PDF: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10318062/pdf
- Provenance: europepmc

## Abstract

Antibody discovery is bottlenecked by the individual expression and evaluation of antigen-specific hits. Here, we address this bottleneck by developing a workflow combining cell-free DNA template generation, cell-free protein synthesis, and binding measurements of antibody fragments in a process that takes hours rather than weeks. We apply this workflow to evaluate 135 previously published antibodies targeting the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), including all 8 antibodies previously granted emergency use authorization for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and demonstrate identification of the most potent antibodies. We also evaluate 119 anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies from a mouse immunized with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and identify neutralizing antibody candidates, including the antibody SC2-3, which binds the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein of all tested variants of concern. We expect that our cell-free workflow will accelerate the discovery and characterization of antibodies for future pandemics and for research, diagnostic, and therapeutic applications more broadly.

_Abstract reproduced under CC-BY (article license as recorded by Europe PMC; abstract reproduced unmodified apart from markup removal)._

Topics: [Synthetic Biology & Genome Engineering](https://space-kitty.com/topics/synthetic-biology)

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