Advances in the generation and selection of antibodies from combinatorial libraries allow for the rapid production of antibodies from immune and non-immune sources. This intensive laboratory/lecture course will focus on the construction of combinatorial antibody libraries expressed on the surface of filamentous phage and the subsequent selection of desired antibodies from the library. Students will learn the theoretical and practical aspects of constructing combinatorial libraries from immune and non-immune sources as well as the construction of synthetic antibody libraries. Antigen-specific recombinant monoclonal antibodies will be selected from the library. Production, purification and characterization of antibody fragments expressed in E. coli will also be covered.

The lecture series, presented by course faculty and a number of invited speakers, will emphasize theory and practice of antibody display technologies, expression of antibodies in E. coli and mammalian cells, antibody structure and function, bacterial display of antibodies and other ligand-binding domains, the immunobiology of the antibody response, and the use of monoclonal antibodies for therapy including the design of chimeric antigen receptor T cells. We will also discuss principles and protocols for generation and analysis of immune repertoires determined by Next Generation Sequencing.