Discussion

Novel artificial binding proteins are alternative antibody-like reagents and are useful in many applications from diagnostics to therapeutics. We have developed a novel artificial binding protein, termed Adhiron, that shows remarkable thermal stability and ability to constrain two extended randomised loops of amino acids. Adhirons that bind to target proteins can be isolated from a phage display library quickly and many binders block protein-protein interactions or protein function in vitro and in vivo. This highlights the potential of incorporating the Adhiron platform into a drug discovery pipeline for target validation, identifying druggable domains by structural studies and incorporating them into high throughput drug displacement screens.