Content (Syllabus outline)

Antigens: biological, biochemical, physical and immunological properties. Ag preparation; determinations of B and T cell epitopes using bioinformatics and deimmunization of antigens. Histocompatibility antigens. Strategies for vaccine production: classical, recombinant, DNA, idiotipic, B-cell epitopes. Immunization strategies: basics of immune response development (B cell repertoire, maturation of immune response, high affinity antibodies, immune tolerance). In vitro immunization.

Biological, biochemical, physical and immunological properties of antibodies – comparison between different animal species (mouse, rabbit, horse, camel, chicken,). Production of polyclonal, monoclonal recombinant antibodies and their subunits: Fab, Fc, ScFv) in different systems (mouse-chicken mAbs, expression systems for recAb: bacteria, mammalian cell culture, plant, bioreactors, transgenic animals). Phage display and antibody library. Isolation, characterization, modification, conjugation of antibodies. Immunotoxins. Modification of antibody  effector functions. Therapeutic antibodies.  HAMA. Humanized, bispecifc, catalytic, anti-idiotipic antibodies. Antibodies for protein microarrays. Recombinant cytokines and their potential use in therapy. Fc receptor- biological function in vivo and bio-tech applications (transfer of antibodies – transgenic animals). Review of therapeutic mAbs and Ab-based or cytokine-based products. Industrial level of Ab production and biosimillars and some cases of successful immunodrugs. Production of passive vaccines (workshop on ZMab-anti Ebola vaccine case). Cell immunotherapy and CAR-T cells.

Lab exercise: each group of students prepare exact protocol for mAb production, discuss it with assistant/professor  and then execute the project on their own. Main steps are: 1. testing of immunization and choosing the best animal; 2. culturing the myeloma cells; 3. fusion; 4. optimization of screening method; 5. Screening  6. selection of hybridomas and cloning; 7. freezing; 8. culturing of hybridomas and isolation of mAb from culture supernatant; 9. testing of mAb specificity and activity: western blot, surface plasmon resonance.

Prerequisites

Requirements for enrolment:

Inscription to adequate academic year.

Terms of Prerequisites:

Prerequisite for practical examination is minimal 80 % presence at practical course.

Practical examination is a prerequisite for final exam.