Introduction

The development of immunetherapeutics has seen a marked increase in recent years, with the most robust method for monoclonal antibody (mAb) discovery being the use of immune B cells in hybridoma studies. The significance of immune based therapies lies in the manipulation of the host’s own immune system to fight off disease. Taking immunized animals as a source, extracted plasma cells, such as B cells, can be fused with myeloma cells to generate immortalized hybridomas that can produce antibodies indefinitely.

These antibodies will be targeted to the infective agent the animal is treated with. The main drawback with this method of antibody production is the generation of hybridomas, which are time consuming, costly, require labor intensive processes to develop and are inefficient; around 1 in 5000 B cells survive fusion into hybridomas.

Conventional methods for characterization of B cells usually:

• Requires several days and is inefficient, costly and a laborious process
• Uses complex protocols for screening and enrichment of B cells
• Demands use of sophisticated procedures to asses B cell performance and yield
• Requires multiple technological platforms and skilled personnel

In this application note, we describe solutions to the above challenges by using Sartorius platforms, focusing on the CellCelector Flex, at key stages of B cell workflows.