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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. VPTN IS PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY: Victorian Platform Technologies Network ©2016 VPTN. All rights reserved.