Download Combating rapid evolution of insidious viruses

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Combating rapid evolution
of insidious viruses
GROWING CONCERN OF DISEASE OUTBREAKS
ESTABLISHED:
2009
CO-FOUNDER & CEO: DR BEN KIEFEL affinity BIO are a Melbourne-based
organisation and the home of
Retained Display (ReD) ultra-rapid
antibody display platform. ReD
delivers highly-soluble single-chain
antibodies from affinity BIO’s diverse
library within five days.
affinitybio.com.au
In 2014 the Ebola virus outbreak brought to light the global burden of infectious
diseases whilst raising questions about the preparedness of our global health system1.
Then in 2016, the Zika virus was declared an international public health emergency by
the World Health Organisation, demonstrating how infection diseases remain a major
public health concern around the world.
Despite the increasing number of outbreaks per-capita, outbreak cases are declining:
signally that global prevention, early detection, control and treatment process efforts
are becoming more effective2. However, detecting, tracking, reporting and combating
new disease threats is an ongoing challenge and places the global health system under
additional pressure.
CREATING NEW PATHWAYS
In recent years, Australia has been fortunate not to have been significantly impacted by
widespread disease outbreaks; yet it is Australian scientists who are at the forefront of
exploring new methods to combat the rapid evolution of diseases, such as the deadly
Ebola virus.
Traditionally antibodies have been produced by injecting animals and waiting for an
immune response or have been made outside the immune system, which can take
months to test and develop an appropriate antibody. As with many other diseases, death
from Ebola virus can occur in a matter of weeks or days.
INSTITUTION: MONASH UNIVERSITY
MANAGER:
ANDREW FRYGA
A VPTN member facility, FlowCore is
one of the top flow cytometry facilities
in Australia. All FlowCore’s equipment
boasts cutting-edge features and
355mn UV laser technology, including
Australia’s first five-laser cell sorter
and sever-laser analyser. FlowCore
provides unrivalled flexibility for
Melbourne researches.
platformtechnologies.org/
flowcore-8145
To this end, biotechnologists at affinity BIO started exploring a more efficient way.
PREPARED FOR OUTBREAKS
Based at Monash University, FlowCore is one
of the few publicly-funded flow cytometry
facilities providing services to the broader
scientific community in Victoria, Australia.
Working with FlowCore – a VPTN member
facility – affinity BIO began to develop an
accelerated programme to grow genes for
human antibodies ready to use in an outbreak.
“Three years ago we realised the fastest
way to sort our large libraries was to utilise
flow cytometry technologies. As an added
challenge, our E. coli cells are about 1/10th
of the size of a mammalian cell – much
smaller than the cells usually detected on
these machines,” explains Dr Ben Kiefel of
affinity BIO.
affinity BIO developed a display system and library (5 x 1010 members) but did not
have the resources to screen it rapidly, so they enlisted FlowCore’s flow cytometry
equipment and their expertise. Over several months, FlowCore worked with affinity
BIO to set the protocols needed for this portion of their technology.
Majority of flow cytometry analysers can detect cells measuring between 1 micron and
50 microns, and most research is done within a narrow range of this, on mammalian
cells- blood tissue and tissue culture cells. FlowCore modified this protocol in order to
develop affinity BIO’s antibody technology.
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Combating rapid evolution of insidious viruses
“When we need an antibody
quickly, it’s now easy to take
cells from our library and
pan for the antibody needed.
And as E. coli grows very
quickly, we have taken the
genes for human antibodies
and engineered them to a
form that E. coli will make.”
SPEEDING UP RESULTS
affinity BIO has now developed
a technology called Retained
Display (ReD), to make
antibodies rapidly, using the
quickly replicating E. coli
bacterium. The team has built
two synthetic human antibody
libraries – the Ruby ReD library
(single chain), which can be
used to discover antibodies in
just five working days!
Dr Ben Kiefel, affinity BIO
“Organisations need access
to FlowCore’s world class
instruments and expertise
for their research. In working
closely with affinity BIO, we’ve
achieved an outstanding
outcome to help save more
lives from deadly diseases.”
affinity BIO’s ReD technology uniquely displays antibodies
(shown here in green) on the cell-wall of permeablised
E. coli cells. These particles are then sorted to purity
using the FACS capabilities of FlowCore.
The speed of E. coli replication
allows affinity BIO to replicate
favoured library members
quickly (containing the human
antibody genes) for further
testing or growth of the
antibody itself.
Andrew Fryga, FlowCore
“VPTN’s value is simple
in connecting commercial
innovators with the right
research expertise and
superior resources.”
Dr Ben Kiefel, affinity BIO
FlowCore helps with synthetic human antibody library
ABOUT THE VPTN
Established in 2009, the Victorian
Platform Technologies Network
(VPTN) plays a key role in connecting
publicly-funded facilities in Victoria
with industry and researchers.
Through its online services –
ARIN and PlatformConnect – VPTN is
unique in offering a centralised, open
and cross-institutional network of over
160 platform technologies across more
than 30 institutions. VPTN is realising
its vision by linking innovation with
technology and expertise in biological,
materials, engineering, physical,
chemical, food, sports, information,
nano, design and mathematical
sciences. The VPTN is an initiative
supported by the Victorian Government,
Biomedical Research Victoria and
Monash University. Discover more at
platformtechnologies.org
[email protected]
@VicPTN | #VPTNmember
FUTURE COLLABORATION
The team at FlowCore believe that for every positive avenue of pursuit there are five
caveats. With over 40+ years of flow analysis experience and recent knowledge, they
can make a difference to experiments and saving time.
affinity BIO are rolling out their solution commercially and reviewing collaborators to
continually validate their system.
LEARN MORE ABOUT VPTN’S INDUSTRY STORIES OR EXPLORE ITS
PUBLICLY-FUNDED MEMBER FACILITIES:
platformtechnologies.org [email protected]
1 Christian, K., Ijaz, K., Dowell, S., Chow, C., Chitale, R., Bresee, J., Mintz, E., Pallansch, M., Wassilak, S., McCray, E. and
Arthur, R., 2013. What we are watching—five top global infectious disease threats, 2012: a perspective from CDC’s Global
Disease Detection Operations Center. Emerging Health Threats Journal, 6(0).
2 Sokol, N. and Ordway, D., 2016. Global rise in human infectious disease outbreaks. Journal of The Royal Society Interface,
11(101), pp.20140950-20140950.
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