Engineering antibodies for human therapeutics

Since the introduction of the hybridoma technology in 1975, monoclonal antibodies have rapidly become one of the most important tools in bioscience, with utility extending to therapy of human diseases. The use of monoclonal antibodies as therapeutics, however, was initially hampered by the fact that murine (and other rodent) antibodies proved to be highly immunogenic in humans. Therefore, major research efforts have focused on elimination, or at least reduction, of the immunogenicity of rodent monoclonal antibodies in humans. The humanization technology has ultimately made it possible to eliminate the immunogenicity of rodent antibodies in humans and opened a door to the application of monoclonal antibodies for treatment of human diseases. In addition, recent advances in antibody engineering have provided an opportunity to improve the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies as therapeutics. In this presentation, I will describe how antibody engineering, such as humanization and Fc engineering, has contributed to the development of antibody-based human therapeutics and discuss on the future direction of the research in antibody engineering.