HIGH THROUGHPUT ANTIBODY VARIANT SCREENING METHOD

1 . A high throughput method for selecting an antibody variant amino acid sequence of interest from a plurality of antibody variant amino acid sequences, comprising the steps of:

(a) predetermining a plurality of variant amino acid sequences and the corresponding molecular weight of each member of the plurality of variant amino acid sequences, wherein the variant amino acid sequences are variants of a preselected reference antibody, wherein the parent antibody specifically binds to a target ligand of interest;

(b) cloning a plurality of nucleic acid sequences, each encoding a member of the plurality of variant amino acid sequences, to generate a mixed pool of nucleic acids capable of transfecting a mammalian cell;

(c) transfecting a plurality of mammalian cells with the mixed pool of nucleic acids from step (b);

(d) culturing the transfected mammalian cells under physiological conditions allowing the cells to express recombinant antibodies;

(e) harvesting the recombinant antibodies present in the culture in step (d) into a cell-free supernatant fraction and purifying the cell-free supernatant fraction by affinity chromatography to obtain a mixed pool of IgG molecules;

(f) loading the mixed pool of IgG molecules from step (e) onto an affinity chromatography matrix, wherein the target ligand of interest is covalently conjugated to the affinity chromatography matrix;

(g) eluting the IgG molecules from the affinity chromatography matrix under increasingly stringent buffer conditions and collecting a plurality of eluant fractions; and

(h) detecting the molecular weights of the IgG molecules present in each eluant fraction by mass spectrometry,

whereby one or more antibody variants of interest, from the eluant fraction obtained under the highest stringency buffer conditions in step (g), having a predetermined variant amino acid sequence, is identified by its corresponding molecular weight and can be selected from the plurality of variant amino acid sequences for further analysis.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein culturing the transfected mammalian cells under physiological conditions allowing the cells to express recombinant antibodies comprises conditions allowing the cells to secrete the recombinant antibodies into the culture supernatant.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein eluting the IgG molecules from the affinity chromatography matrix under increasingly stringent buffer conditions comprises employing a gradient of increasing ionic strength.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein eluting the IgG molecules from the affinity chromatography matrix under increasingly stringent buffer conditions comprises employing a pH gradient.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein eluting the IgG molecules from the affinity chromatography matrix under increasingly stringent buffer conditions comprises employing a gradient of increasing concentration of a molecule that competes for binding to the target ligand.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the molecule that competes for binding to the target ligand is a small molecule or an oligopeptide.