Human peripheral blood lymphocytes for therapeutic antibody screening

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Human peripheral blood lymphocytes for therapeutic antibody screening against T-cell co-receptors.

  • IRAS ID

    196444

  • Contact name

    Kevin J Roberts

  • Contact email

    Kevin.Roberts@vhsquared.com

  • Sponsor organisation

    VHsquared Ltd

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    7286540 , VHsquared Ltd registered in England & Wales

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    2 years, 11 months, 18 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 cell-surface receptors involved in the regulation of human T cells.

    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 T cells and to investigate the properties of individual antibodies in terms of T cell receptor specificity, receptor binding characteristics and modulation of T cell functions. To this end, and using simple and well established procedures, we will need to isolate human T cells from whole human blood (or buffy coat packs) for use in the different cell-based research assays systems. Non-human or repeat-cultured human T cell lines often do not reflect the properties of primary human cells isolated directly from blood. Consequently, for this project, we will require primary human T cells, 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 Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    15/EM/0573

  • Date of REC Opinion

    17 Dec 2015

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion