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Ecobody Technology

About Ecobody

“Ecobody” is a technology developed at Nagoya University, Japan, enabling us to obtain and evaluate useful antibodies produced in humans and animals exhaustively and rapidly.

Benefits of “Ecobody” Technology

With “Ecobody” technology, we can obtain monoclonal antibodies individually from single human and animal B cells. Unlike conventional technology, our technology does not require immortalization or proliferation of B cells, avoiding cell loss. Therefore, we can mine monoclonal antibodies while maintaining the original diversity seen in humans and animals. In addition, while conventional antibody expression systems use living cells that cause heterogeneity in expression levels, “Ecobody” technology uses a cell-free system to express antibodies, resulting in homogeneous antibody levels. Our technology contributed to the exhaustive and rapid (2 days) evaluation of antibodies without decreased diversity. Please see the video below and references for technical details.

Related Patents

・Tagged antibody（Japan Patent No. 6744670）

・Protein Expression Method（Japan Patent No. 6681625;　U.S. Patent Number: 10975376）

・PROTEIN EXPRESSION METHOD（European patent No.EP3312278)

※iBody has been granted an exclusive global license for these patents from Nagoya University.

Features of Antibody Mining Technologies

	Ecobody	Hybridoma	Phage Display
Animals	Rabbit, Human	Mouse	Not used
Time	2 days※	A few months	7 weeks
Culture	Unnecessary	Necessary	Necessary
Core Technology	Single-cell technology and in vitro antibody expression	Cell fusion and culture	Bacterial expression
Native Antibody Isolation	Possible	Possible	Impossible

※Excludes the animal immunization period

Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody

Rabbits produce antibodies against a wider variety of antigens with higher affinities than mice, which are used by conventional antibody production methods. Furthermore, rabbits are suitable for producing antibodies that bind to low-molecular-weight compounds with high affinity and distinguish small amino acid differences and protein modifications. Thus, the generation of rabbit monoclonal antibodies is a powerful option when the desired antibody cannot be obtained from mice.

Achievements of monoclonal antibody mining from rabbits using “Ecobody” technology

Monoclonal antibody binding to a low-molecular-weight compound

Obtained monoclonal antibodies recognize a low-molecular-weight bioactive substance with high affinity and specificity

Achievements of monoclonal antibody mining from rabbits using “Ecobody” technology

Unimmobilised target substance (X) inhibits the antibody binding, whereas other related substances (A-H) do not.

Monoclonal antibody detecting a post-translational modification

Obtained monoclonal antibodies specifically detect the protein phosphorylation.

Antibodies obtained (Fab1, Fab2) selectively react with the target phosphorylated peptide.

Monoclonal antibody detecting slight amino acid sequence differences

Obtained monoclonal antibodies distinguish between slightly different amino acid sequences

Rabbits immunized with antigens 1a and 2a produced polyclonal antibodies (poly1 and poly2, respectively) with low specificities. Monoclonal antibodies (Fab1-1-Fab2-4) obtained from these rabbits showed strong specificity for the target antigens.

Human Monoclonal Antibody

Human antibodies attract attention as drug candidates because they are less likely to induce unwanted immune responses in the human body, unlike antibodies obtained from animals. Humans produce antibodies that bind disease-specific molecules at the lesion site. Therefore, these human antibodies are expected to be used as highly specific probes for identifying disease markers. Furthermore, isolating human monoclonal antibodies is an effective approach for determining pathophysiology and etiology. For example, abnormal antibodies directly cause autoimmune diseases, and patients’ antibodies against infectious viral diseases, like COVID-19, affect the related symptoms. Isolation of these antibodies is expected to reveal new aspects of disease and immunity.

Achievements of monoclonal antibody isolating from humans using “Ecobody” technology

Monoclonal antibody recognizing a solid tumor

Target tumor-binding monoclonal antibodies were isolated from the cancer tissues of a solid tumor patients

Obtained natural human antibody (#2) strongly binds to multiple lines of human cancer cells

Fluorescent immunostaining of xenograft cancer tissue of a model mouse

Control

Antibody（#2）

Antibody obtained from a tumor patient is applicable for cancer tissue immunostaining

Monoclonal antibody against SARS-CoV-2

The monoclonal antibody (MO1) with neutralizing activity against diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants(D614G, Delta, BA.1, BA.1.1,BA.2, BA.2.75, and BA.5) was identified from blood samples of infected individuals.

Neutralizing activity of the antibody MO1 against Omicron BA.5 variant

Antibody MO1 inhibited the viral proliferation in a concentration dependent manner.(The data was provided from Prof. Yasuko Mori of Kobe University)

Three-dimensional structure of the antibody MO1 binding to the target spike protein

The antibody MO1 recognizes common sequence to various mutants(D614G, Delta, BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.2.75, BA.5)MO1 bound to the purified target RBD proteins of BA.2 and BA.5 variants with the dissociation constants(Kd)of 3.3 nM and 11 nM, respectively.(Figure created from public information on PDB 8h3n)

References

Ecobody technology : Rapid and Direct Screening of Monoclonal Antibodies from Single B cells of humans and rabbits