Immunogens

Many novel antibodies are still created via classical immunisation approaches, and if the target of interest is too small to be immunogenic in its own right, it is necessary to create an immunogen, typically a high loading of the hapten coupled to a large carrier protein such as thyroglobulin or keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH).

Immunogens have particular considerations not relevant to many other conjugate applications – for example the immunogenicity of any linker group – and Fleet Bioprocessing Ltd. have the knowhow to advise on a successful strategy.

Conjugates are often also required to facilitate the screening of candidate antibodies; the design of these “screenogens” needs to be carefully thought through, taking into account the immunogen structure – otherwise confusing and misleading results can be observed. Again, Fleet can make sure you avoid any pitfalls at this stage.

Example Projects

Regular immunogen supply to leading UK antibody vendor

Our rare combination of skills in organic chemistry, bioconjugation and immunology make Fleet an obvious candidate to design and manufacture immunogens, especially for tricky targets. A very successful UK-based antibody developer regularly employs Fleet in this role, with many high quality antibodies having been raised from our immunogens. Where necessary our experts have undertaken organic synthesis to introduce suitable functionality into the hapten to facilitate conjugation to the carrier protein.

"Difficult" hapten immunogens successfully prepared

An established UK diagnostics company requested that Fleet make immunogens for some "difficult" drug derivatives. In agreement with the customer, Fleet's experts proposed and investigated numerous synthetic routes to yield suitably functionalised haptens, successfully using these to generate the required immunogens.

Fleet expertise in immunogen design helps advance point-of-care LFT for bovine TB

Working with a UK-based company, Fleet’s expert chemists were responsible for the design and synthesis of a panel of novel immunogens that successfully generated high-performance antibodies; these are now the core reagents in a potentially game-changing lateral flow assay for the veterinary sector.

Careful design of an immunogen furnishes high performance antibodies

Thanks to Fleet expertise in immunogen design, a UK-based diagnostics company have been able to obtain highly sensitive and highly specific antibodies for development of a novel anaesthesia monitoring device.