Hybridoma Technology: The Preferred Method for Monoclonal Antibody Generation for <i>in vivo</i> Applications

Abstract

rior to the development of h y b r i d o m a t e c h n o l o g y, researchers relied on polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) for experiments involving the identification and quantification of specific proteins of interest within complex biological environments. While pAbs offered their own set of benefits, they could not be used for in vivo experiments or therapeutics due to their batch-to-batch inconsistency and high levels of background reactivity. It was not until 1975 when Khler and Milstein used hybridomas to generate monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), that the worlds of antibodies and in vivo scientific research could meet for the first time The introduction of mAbs to in vivo research gave rise to some of the greatest scientific achievements of the 21st century, including in vivo diagnostics, mAb therapeutics and antibody-drug conjugation. While other technologies such as display libraries have since been developed for mAb discovery, hybridoma technology remains the primary discovery platform preferred by in vivo scientists. This editorial will address the benefits of using hybridoma technology for in vivo applications and describe some of the major contributions that hybridomaderived mAbs have made in in vivo research and therapy.