Antibody trap
Analysis of therapeutic antibodies using rapid capture in porous membranes
Merlin L. Bruening, Departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are a vital class of biotherapeutic drugs with high selectivity and specificity. However, blood concentrations vary between different patients due to differences in antibody clearance and modification. The highest concentrations may lead to side effects, and the lower concentrations often prove ineffective. Personal dosing regimens are desirable, although they do not occur in practice, in part due to a lack of rapid analysis methods. This work aims to rapidly capture antibodies in porous membranes containing immobilized peptides that are epitopes for a specific antibody. Flow through the membrane should enable capture of the therapeutic antibody in minutes and subsequent fluorescence or absorbance analysis should allow determination of the antibody concentration. The project will employ reflectance ATR-IR spectroscopy to monitor epitope immobilization and antibody binding on surfaces, as well as studies of the antibody capture and elution from the membrane and subsequent analysis.