Discussion

Many pharmaceutical companies are implementing a return to a strategy utilizing both phenotypic and target-based approaches in small molecule screening due to the realisation that target based methods alone were not yielding the success first hoped for. In the search for therapeutic antibodies the focus in early screening techniques still predominately relies on using limited readouts such as binding of an antibody to antigens either on a bead or expressed on the surface of a cell. Using plate based, high sensitivity cytometry we describe how it is possible to run both target based antibody screening and phenotypic screening using the same platform, thereby maximising the use of a single instrument. We have previously demonstrated multiplexing different antigen expressing cells, or coded beads in the same well in binding assays to simultaneously run specificity screening as well as determining antibody binding. In addition, using high sensitivity cytometry, it is possible to run phenotypic screens, such as cell health, cell cycle and kinase activation. We will present data showing how this flexible platform can be employed into different approaches for antibody screening strategies.