Human peripheral blood leukocytes for therapeutic antibody screening

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Human peripheral blood leukocytes for therapeutic antibody screening

  • IRAS ID

    254175

  • Contact name

    Michael West

  • Contact email

    Mike.West@vhsquared.com

  • Sponsor organisation

    VHsquared Ltd

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    VHsquared Ltd registered in England & Wales , 7286540

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    2 years, 11 months, 14 days

  • Research summary

    The VHsquared research team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI) has developed methods for the production of antibody fragments (functional antibody domains) that retain the antigen binding specificity and potency of conventional antibodies. The aim of the current project is to isolate single domain antibodies that bind to specific proteins involved in the regulation of human leukocytes.

    A library of domain antibodies has already been prepared. The aims of the current project will be to isolate from the library those domain antibodies that bind to human proteins that act on leukocytes and to investigate the properties of individual antibodies in terms of protein specificity and modulation of leukocytes functions. To this end, and using simple and well established procedures, we will need to isolate human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from whole human blood (or buffy coat packs) for use in the different cell-based research assays systems. Non-human or repeat-cultured human PBMCs lines often do not reflect the properties of primary human cells isolated directly from blood. Consequently, for these projects, we will require primary human PBMCs, direct from blood. Thus we are seeking ethical permission to use anonymised bloods (or blood derived cells) acquired by the NHS Blood and Transplant service or commercial suppliers for the purpose of this research.

  • REC name

    East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1

  • REC reference

    19/ES/0011

  • Date of REC Opinion

    23 Jan 2019

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion