Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: An approach for single-amino-acid resolution epitope mapping by kinetic affinity screening of antibody drugs against biosensor on-chip library of deep mutationally-scanned target variants
doi: 10.64898/2026.04.30.722015
Figure Lengend Snippet: Schematic of SPOC platform application in antibody discovery pipelines. Initial antibody library screening (Phases 1.1 & 1.2) is accomplished by cloning antibody sequences in scFv or VHH format as HaloTag fusion constructs for cell-free expression and downstream SPOC chip capture (Chip A). In Phase 1.1, this diverse library of clones is screened with the desired target as analyte (gray) for antibody ligands that bind productively (dotted red circles) and with desirable interaction kinetics. In Phase 1.2, Chip A can be re-screened with target once-again, yet this time pre-bound with either a partner protein or competitive antibody that blocks the desired epitope. In this manner, competitive inhibition of binding to antibody ligands on the biosensor chip can be assessed as a means of functional characterization and epitope clustering. In Phase 2, a second chip is designed taking top clones from Phase 1 and performing deep-mutation scanning (DMS) of the paratopes (Chip B). The target can be screened and paratope substitutions that further tune binding identified. Finally, in Phase 3, a third chip is manufactured where the target itself is expressed and captured as a HaloTag fusion containing various amino-acid substitutions by DMS (Chip C). Top clones identified from Phase 2 can then be screened, and clones with desired epitope engagement (e.g. specificity to certain mutations, or resistance to certain epitope substitutions) can be selected as top lead candidates for further engineering and functional screening in cell-based or in vivo experimentation (e.g. neutralization assays).
Article Snippet: The print mix consisted of 1.46 mg/ml BS3 in DMSO, 7.4 mg/mL BSA, and limited amounts, 0 to 1 mM, of amine-terminated chloroalkane HaloTag ligand (Iris Biotech; RL-3680) in nuclease-free water.
Techniques: Library Screening, Cloning, Construct, Expressing, Clone Assay, Inhibition, Binding Assay, Functional Assay, Mutagenesis, In Vivo, Neutralization