Producing Monoclonal Antibodies

What are monoclonal antibodies produced from?

A single clone of cells.

What’s the 1st step for making monoclonal antibodies?

Mice are injected with antigens to stimualte the production of lymphocytes that make specific antibodies.

What’s the 2nd step for making monoclonal antibodies?

The injected mice stimulate the production of lymphocytes that make specific antibodies.

What’s the 3rd step for making monoclonal antibodies?

Tumour cells are cultured and these cells can divide and grow endlessly.

What’s the 4th step for making monoclonal antibodies?

The lymphocytes are fused with the tumour cells to create hybridoma cells.

Why are lymphocytes and tumour cells fused together?

Lymphocytes make antibodies but can’t divide to form clones while tumour cells can divide to form clones.

What can a single hybridoma cell do?

A single hybridoma cell can divide to make a large number of identical cells.

What can all the cloned cells from the hybridoma cell do?

All the cloned cells can make the antibdy.

What’s the 5th step for making monoclonal antibodies?

A large amount of the monoclonal antibody can then be produced, collected and purified for use.