Abstract
The presence of unique heavy chain-only antibodies (HCAbs) in camelids was discovered at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Brussels, Belgium) at a time when many researchers were exploring the cloning and expression of smaller antigen-binding fragments (Fv and Fab) from hybridoma-derived antibodies. The potential importance of this discovery was anticipated, and efforts were immediately undertaken to understand the emergence and ontogeny of these HCAbs as well as to investigate the applications of the single-domain antigen-binding variable domains of HCAbs (nanobodies). Nanobodies were demonstrated to possess multiple biochemical and biophysical advantages over other antigen-binding antibody fragments and alternative scaffolds. Today, nanobodies have a significant and growing impact on research, biotechnology, and medicine.
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Acknowledgments
The work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U20A20263), the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFC1103002), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (DUT20LAB121, DUT20YG107, DUT21ZD207, and DUT21LK10).
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Ji, F., Ren, J., Vincke, C., Jia, L., Muyldermans, S. (2022). Nanobodies: From Serendipitous Discovery of Heavy Chain-Only Antibodies in Camelids to a Wide Range of Useful Applications. In: Hussack, G., Henry, K.A. (eds) Single-Domain Antibodies. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2446. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2075-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2075-5_1
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