De Novo Sequencing a Bispecific T Cell Engager
Our client is a biotechnology company developing therapeutics that target cancer-specific carbohydrate antigens on the surface of tumour cells.
January 2025
December 2024
B Cell Sequencing and Polyclonal Sequencing Explained
Written by: Genya Gorshtein, MSc Published: December 12, 2024 Contents Introduction BCR and Single B Cell Sequencing for Antibody Discovery Antibody Discovery through De Novo Sequencing of Serum Antibodies Proteogenomics: A Complimentary Approach Antibody Discovery With Rapid Novor Introduction B cell sequencing has long [...]
June 2024
Epitope Mapping: Alanine Scanning Mutagenesis vs. HDX-MS
Written by: Genya Gorshtein, MSc Published: June 10, 2024 Contents Introduction Alanine Scanning Mutagenesis Epitope Mapping HDX-MS Epitope Mapping Antibody Epitope Mapping Services Introduction Epitope mapping elucidates the antibody function by identifying specific binding sites on the antigen that interact with the antibody. Alanine [...]
May 2024
Epitope Binning With SPR For Antibody Drug Discovery
Written by: Genya Gorshtein, MSc Published: May 29, 2024 Contents Introduction What is Epitope Binning Value of Epitope Binning in Early Discovery Stages Epitope Binning with SPR on Biacore 1K Introduction An epitope is an inherent property of an antibody that cannot be altered [...]
Ask Our Experts: Navigating Antibody Characterization through LC-MS
In this webinar, you will… Learn the details of LC-MS based antibody characterization in early discovery and production pipelines Explore in-depth the analytical methodologies and strategies essential for comprehensive antibody characterization, covering post-translational modifications, glycan profiles, peptide mapping, and disulfide linkages Ask your burning questions and get expert guidance on navigating antibody [...]
July 2023
Antibody Discovery Dead Ends and New Approaches
In this webinar, you will learn: About the challenges commonly encountered in antibody discovery campaigns, including non-functional antibodies, limited diversity, developability issues, and immunogenicity. How to de-risk antibody discovery campaigns, while balancing speed and spend Discover how a proteomics and mass spectrometry-based approach to antibody discovery, utilizing REpAb polyclonal sequencing, presents [...]
June 2023
CAR-iNKT Cells Targeting Clonal TCRVβ Chains as a Precise Strategy to Treat T Cell Lymphoma
With 22 functional T cell receptor (TCR)Vβ subunit families making up the normal T cell repertoire, signals from these cell surface receptors often determine the fate of normal cells. However, mutations in TCR signaling proteins are frequently associated with peripheral T cell lymphomas (TCLs), including adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), which indicates a driving role for TCRs in TCL oncogenesis. As TCL and ATL are clonal in nature, tumour cells typically express a single TCRVβ subunit with no bias in the usage of TCRVβ subunit families. Consequently, targeting the specific TCRVβ subunit presents a promising therapeutic approach that is highly selective and tumour-specific.
December 2022
Antibody Discovery Platforms
The great debate on the use of in vivo versus in vitro sources and strategies for antibody discovery and generation continues to thrive among antibody research groups. On one side of the debate is the argument for non-animal-derived antibodies due to the technical advancements of current in vitro technologies, and the moral obligation to reduce animal usage. On the other side of the debate is the counterargument for animal-derived antibodies due to their better performance in affinity, specificity, and reduced immunogenicity risk.
October 2022
Characterizing Biomolecular Interactions with Surface Plasmon Resonance
Biological processes are driven by molecules that interact through specific molecular contacts, often to form a stable complex. These interactions are typically defined by the principles of thermodynamics as well as biomolecular structure and recognition. At the simplest level is the interaction between a target molecule with a specific binding site and a probing molecule that binds to that site, resulting in the bound complex.
August 2022
Surface Plasmon Resonance Spectroscopy
Written by: Vanessa Yoon Calvelo, PhD Updated: January 19, 2023 (Published: August 11, 2022) Contents What is Surface Plasmon Resonance Spectroscopy? What is SPR Used For? How Does SPR Work? SPR Experimental Workflow SPR Sensorgram SPR Advantages SPR Applications SPR Antibody-Antigen Interaction Analysis at Rapid Novor What is [...]
Moving Towards Biosimilar Drugs
Written by: Vanessa Yoon Calvelo, PhD Published: August 3, 2022 Contents What are Biosimilar Drugs? Why are Biosimilars Being Developed? Biosimilars are not the Equivalent of Generics Biosimilar Development Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies De Novo Protein Sequencing Solutions in Biosimilar Development What are Biosimilar Drugs? Biosimilar drugs, [...]
July 2022
Protein Characterization by HDX-MS
Characterization of proteins and protein complexes is a major keystone of structural biology. As our understanding of cellular processes continues to evolve from simple pathways to complicated networks, our need for advanced analytical methods is quite apparent. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based structural approaches can be used to study protein conformational changes and dynamics, protein motion/flexibility, ligand-protein binding, and protein-protein interfaces.
Adeno-Associated Virus Vectors for Gene Therapy Delivery
Written by: Vanessa Yoon Calvelo, PhD Published: July 11, 2022 Contents What is Gene Therapy? What are Adeno-Associated Viruses? Engineering of AAVs for Gene Therapy Engineering AAVs for Improved Transduction Engineering AAVs for Improved Immunogenicity De Novo Protein Sequencing Applications in AAV Characterization and Development What is Gene [...]
June 2022
Chimeric Antigen Receptors and T cells – CAR-T
Written by: Vanessa Yoon Calvelo, PhD Published: June 13, 2022 Contents What is CAR-T Cell Therapy? CAR Structure and Function CAR-T Cell Development Engineering Strategies for CAR-T Cells De Novo Protein Sequencing Applications in CAR-T Cell Development What is CAR-T Cell Therapy? The infusion of T cells [...]
What is Polyclonal Antibody Sequencing?
The most straightforward solution would be to determine sequences of the dominating antibody forms in a polyclonal mixture to enable recombinant antibody generation and ensure reproducibility. This was recently made possible by the development of polyclonal antibody sequencing technology, which will be reviewed in this article.
May 2022
What is HDX-MS?
The origin of hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) dates back to the 1950s, when protein scientist Linderstrøm-Lang created a method involving protein deuteration to distinguish amide hydrogens participating in secondary structures. Today, scientists frequently rely on HDX data to investigate protein structure, conformational dynamics, and protein-ligand interaction.
April 2022
Identifying CDRs by Antibody Sequencing
The acronym “CDR” stands for complementarity determining region, a variable sequence of amino acids that folds into loops capable of binding to an antigenic amino acid sequence, also known as an epitope
January 2022
Recombinant Therapeutic pAbs are Now Possible
Polyclonal antibodies are popular research reagents for their high sensitivity and robust cross-platform performance. But few companies consider them viable for therapeutic applications as they are almost impossible to characterize. Additionally, they suffer from a lack of reproducibility and limited supply. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can be reliably characterized and produced for therapeutic applications, but are more costly to discover and develop. Rapid Novor’s REpAb technology can overcome these limitations by capturing the sequences of the most abundant IgG in a pAb and enabling indefinite antibody production. Here we report the first successful conversion of a goat polyclonal antibody into a cocktail of recombinant mAbs using only the pAb protein sample.
Recombinant Antibodies: A New Generation Enabled by Protein Sequencing
Recombinant antibodies are artificially synthesized antibodies. Recombinant antibodies are generated from expression systems (e.g., E.coli, yeast, mammalian cell lines) via transfection with two separate plasmids encoding the amino acid sequences for the light and heavy chains, respectively. In order to recombinantly produce mAbs, the amino acid sequence of the light and heavy chains must be known. There are many ways to obtain the sequence of an antibody.
December 2021
Polyclonal Antibody Sequencing in Therapeutics Development Pipelines
Over the past several years Rapid Novor has been developing the world's best antibody protein sequencing platform, with over 2700 monoclonal antibodies and proteins sequenced. In 2020, they unveiled their most advanced technology to date- REpAb® polyclonal antibody sequencing. The platform combines the world's best protein sequencing technology and NGS to comprehensively mine the antigen specific antibody repertoire present in rabbit and human patient samples. By leveraging the platform, teams can build robust antibody assays and therapeutic leads derived from patient's blood.
November 2021
In-Depth Characterization of Monoclonal Antibodies with a Single Experiment and Fully Automated Data Analysis
To develop robust mAb biologics, it is vital to fully characterize the protein, including its primary sequence, mutations, and important post-translational modifications
Increased De Novo Protein Sequencing Coverage with Optimal Protease Cocktail
In this study, we conducted a large-scale statistical analysis of protein sequencing data from samples digested with multiple proteases to understand the impact of using different combinations of proteases to improve the depth of sequence coverage in the application of de novo protein sequencing.
October 2021
Ushering the New Era in Anti-Drug Antibody Assays with Next Generation Protein Sequencing
Anti-drug antibody (ADA) assays are critical to assess the clinical efficacy and safety of a biological drug and rely on control reagents that mimic the ADA response to the biological drug being tested. These positive controls typically consist of animal-derived pooled polyclonal antibodies or human monoclonal antibody reference panels against the target protein drug.
August 2021
How to Determine Peptide Sequences
Amino acids (aa)—the building blocks of proteins—are simple molecules characterized by a variable R group flanked either side by an amino group and a carboxyl group. With around 20 different commonly found amino acids, each one can bond with another to produce chains that can be classified as peptides (typically below 50 aa) and proteins (sequences above 50 aa)—molecules ubiquitous to every known organism.
Key Pain Points in Amino Acid Sequencing & How to Avoid Them
Amino acid sequencing is commonly performed using Edman degradation or mass spectrometry (MS). While mass spectrometry is favoured for its high throughput capabilities and ease of use, both techniques possess their own features and limitations. This article summarizes some of the key pain points inherent in the two methodologies when determining the amino acid sequence.
De Novo Protein Sequencing vs DNA Sequencing
DNA sequencing is the process of determining the precise order of four nucleotides bases—adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T)—that make up the DNA molecule. From Sanger sequencing to next-generation sequencing (NGS), DNA sequencing’s accessibility and ease of use make it one of the most widely used technologies in life sciences.
July 2021
Fully Harnessing the Power of Immunotherapy through Protein Sequencing
Of interest to human and veterinary drug development scientists, biologics and biosimilars development scientists, scientists performing pre-clinical assay development, immunotherapy researchers, oncolytic therapy development scientists, gene therapy development scientists, gene therapy, and oncolytic therapy researchers, CAR-T, and CAR-NK development scientists
DNA Sequencing vs Next Generation Protein Sequencing
The protein sequence is key to understanding the function of a protein target and is critical to therapeutic and diagnostic development. This is particularly important for antibodies whose code diversity and glycosylation impact both function, and stability.
DNA vs Next Generation Protein Sequencing – a Deep Dive
This webinar offers insight into how DNA and protein sequencing compare to each other.
Isoleucine and Leucine
Because they share the same mass, isoleucine and leucine are known as isobaric amino acids. Conventional mass spectrometry-based proteomics cannot be easily used to distinguish between isoleucine and leucine.
May 2021
Polyclonal Antibody Sequencing with Only Proteomics
Over the past 5 years Rapid Novor has perfected monoclonal antibody sequencing, and is now sequencing mAbs from polyclonal mixtures using REpAb®. After successfully launching their proteogenomics based sequencing technology to deconvolute the immune response, the team has further evolved the technology and has derived the most abundant mAb sequences directly from rabbit blood using only proteomics. The talk will surround the development, progress and use cases for REpAb®.
April 2021
Leveraging pAbs for Therapeutic Development
Over the past several years Rapid Novor has been developing the world’s best antibody protein sequencing platform, sequencing over 2700 monoclonal antibodies and proteins. In 2020, they unveiled their most advanced technology to date - REpAb® polyclonal antibody sequencing. The platform combines the world’s best protein sequencing technology and NGS to comprehensively mine the antigen-specific antibody repertoire present in rabbit and human patient samples. By leveraging the platform, teams can build robust antibody assays and therapeutic leads derived from patients’ blood.
March 2021
A Large-Scale Comparison of MS-based Antibody De Novo Protein Sequencing and Targeted DNA Sequencing
The DNA sequences of antibodies are highly diverse due to the V-(D)-J recombination and hypersomatic mutations. As such, relying on homology-based searches to sequence novel antibodies can introduce bias to sequences obtained from proteomics approaches.
Enhanced Antibody Engineering for Development of Therapeutic Antibodies
Mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are highly attractive for manipulation for therapeutic applications as their manufacturing is relatively easy and well-established compared to mAbs derived from larger animal models. However, they also pose several challenges which limit their use as therapeutic agents.
The Underlying Cause of Medical Diagnostic Invalidation
In-vitro diagnostics (IVDs) are one of the most commonly used tools to diagnose conditions and guide treatment decisions and are often considered the “silent champion” of healthcare. They work by detecting the absence or presence of particular markers or by measuring the concentration of analytes or specific substances.
Leveraging Polyclonal Antibody Sequencing to Get High Affinity Binders Against Tough Targets
When it comes to polyclonal antibodies, how they are discovered can be just as important as how they are reproduced. In our talk originally presented at Antibody Engineering & Therapeutics Digital 2021, we highlighted the latest technology that’s capable of capturing the most abundant and high-affinity monoclonal antibodies directly from a poly mixture.
January 2021
Antibody Sequencing as a Tool to Improve Reproducibility in the Life Sciences
At PepTalk 2021, we discussed the importance of antibody standardization and explained why it’s crucial for the longevity of your research. You can listen to the full on-demand video here.
October 2020
Research Insurance with De Novo Protein Sequencing
If you could have guaranteed stability, certainty, and reproducibility for your research, would you be interested? Imagine this, if you’re 2 years into your project and your freezer died along with all of your important cell lines, what would you do? This is just one of the situations covered in this webinar, along with many other solutions researchers have begun to implement to safeguard their efforts. Whether you’re looking to proceed with stability and certainty or you’re looking for an immediate solution for your current reproducibility challenges, protein sequencing may be the answer.
September 2020
Leveraging Recombinant Patient Antibodies in Therapeutic Applications
Our team has perfected the art of monoclonal antibody sequencing and is now ready to demonstrate our ability to sequence mAbs from polyclonal mixtures. In this talk, Anthony will walk through our new polyclonal sequencing platform that uses both proteomics and genomics to sequence the most abundant antibodies found in polyclonal sera.
May 2020
Introduction to De Novo Protein Sequencing
In this on-demand webinar, our scientific sales executive Jennifer, will briefly cover the fundamentals of protein sequencing, how researchers have benefited from implementing protein sequencing into their pipelines, and discuss how Rapid Novor is able to routinely and robustly achieve 100% accuracy and 100% coverage for both monoclonal and oligoclonal antibodies.
August 2019
What is Protein Sequencing by Mass Spectrometry?
Nowadays, DNA sequencing is so popular that it is easy to forget that the first sequenced biological material was protein – insulin, by Sanger. Sanger, and another researcher, Edman, separately pioneered protein sequencing.
April 2019
Antibody Characterization by Mass Spectrometry
In this on-demand webinar, we discuss why it is important to characterize antibodies based on their physical properties not just by what they bind, and how you can easily do the former via mass spectrometry-based protein sequencing.
February 2017
Antibody Protein Sequence Analysis Using Mass Spectrometry
One of the most important pieces of information researchers need to know during early stage antibody drug research and development is the sequence information of the antibody protein. With the advancement of mass spectrometry instrumentation and technologies, it is helpful, and sometimes critical, to conduct sequence analysis using mass spectrometry experiments.