MPS Antibody Discovery

Antibody isolation strategies for GPCRs, ion channels, transporters, immuno-oncology targets, and other challenging membrane protein targets.

  • Functional antibodies
  • Large, diverse panels of antibody candidates
  • >95% success rate in membrane protein antibody discovery

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Membrane proteins are notoriously difficult targets for antibody discovery.

We know how to work with them.
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How is your antibody discovery platform unique and tailored to membrane proteins?

Our unique technologies enable us to overcome obstacles associated with these complex targets. These technologies and techniques include Lipoparticle antigen presentation, DNA+Lipoparticle immunization, use of divergent species, microfluidic B-cell cloning, phage protocols optimized for membrane proteins, engineering and epitope mapping of membrane proteins, and membrane proteome-wide specificity testing.

MPS Discovery Engine

Antibody Discovery - Optimized Expression Image
The MPS Discovery Engine® delivers functional and specific antibodies against therapeutic targets including GPCRs, ion channels, transporters, and immuno-oncology targets.

"Integral's technology platform for antibody discovery was uniquely suited to our needs. The degree to which Integral's team engaged with us on scientific direction and design was unexpected but extremely beneficial."

What makes your approach so successful for complex proteins?

A high-titer immune response is the most critical component of a successful antibody discovery campaign for complex targets. Our proprietary antigen engineering and immunization techniques are at the core of our 95% success rate in delivering antibodies against complex targets. Our isolation techniques then enable us to isolate valuable and rare monoclonal antibodies (MAbs).

High Titer Responses

Antigen Engineering

Using targeted high-throughput mutagenesis strategies, we engineer membrane proteins as needed to improve their surface expression and stability and to reduce toxicity. Highly expressed antigens result in higher titer immune responses.

(Learn about our antigen engineering strategies)

DNA+Lipoparticle Immunization

Our proprietary immunization protocols combine DNA immunization and antigen presentation on Lipoparticles with proprietary adjuvants. This antibody elicitation strategy ensures a robust immune response focused against the native extracellular regions of the protein.

Use of Divergent Species

We can immunize evolutionarily divergent species to obtain high-titer responses, even for highly conserved, poorly immunogenic targets. This strategy provides broad epitope diversity and favors generation of MAbs with dual specificity for human and rodent orthologs, thereby avoiding the need for surrogate MAbs for animal studies.

Rare MAb Isolation

Microfluidic B-cell Cloning

Our proprietary microfluidic B-cell cloning platform enables millions of B cells to be screened directly from immunized animals. This process allows us to isolate rare functional antibodies with native VH+VL pairing.

Phage Display using Lipoparticles

Our phage display protocols are specifically designed to isolate challenging antibodies against native membrane proteins embedded in a lipid bilayer. Using these strategies, we can isolate diverse panels of antibodies against membrane proteins with a success rate exceeding 95%.

What antibody discovery services do you offer?

Full MPS Antibody Discovery Services

Full antibody discovery services are available for customer-specified targets. We tailor our solutions to the challenges of your specific target to ensure success. We begin with antigen optimization, perform immunizations using proprietary protocols, and deliver validated IgG leads. We also offer functional screening, antibody humanization, affinity maturation, and epitope and paratope mapping services.

Antigen Optimization Services

We provide antigen optimization services for challenging protein targets, customizing our antigen engineering approaches to your protein target. Solutions may include a combination of rational and high-throughput mutagenesis strategies.

Antibody Engineering Services

We offer antibody engineering services to increase affinity, specificity, and stability. Our antibody engineering approaches are adapted to your goals and may include combinations of random, designed, and high-throughput mutagenesis strategies.

Featured Case Studies

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GLUT4 Case Study

See how Integral Molecular used the MPS Discovery Engine to find GLUT4 conformation specific antibodies.

Download Case Study View all Case Studies

CB1 Case Study

See how Integral Molecular used the MPS Discovery Engine to isolate CB1 antibodies.

Download Case Study View all Case Studies
We have discovered functional antibodies with agonist, antagonist, state-specific, and neutralizing activities against dozens of membrane protein targets.
See our antibody pipeline.

Frequently Asked Questions

1What is MPS?
The MPS Discovery Engine® enables the isolation, optimization, and characterization of monoclonal antibodies against challenging membrane proteins, overcoming many of the obstacles associated with these targets. The platform harnesses the strength of Integral Molecular’s 15+ years of membrane protein expertise and proprietary technologies including Lipoparticle antigen presentation, DNA+Lipoparticle immunization, and microfluidic B-cell cloning.
2What kind of proteins can be targeted using MPS?
The MPS platform can be applied to all types of membrane proteins, including GPCRs, ion channels, and transporters. Multi-subunit proteins can also be targeted. MPS is especially suited for membrane proteins that are toxic or poorly expressed, which may require additional engineering to be targeted effectively.
3Why is MPS better than other strategies for generating MAbs against membrane proteins?
MPS overcomes many of the challenges associated with antibody discovery against membrane protein targets, including poor expression, limited immunogenicity, and difficulty in obtaining conformational antibodies. This is enabled by target engineering and display on Lipoparticles, the use of divergent species to obtain robust immune responses, proprietary antibody display strategies, and MAb screening against native protein conformations.
4How do you engineer your membrane proteins for high expression?
Many membrane proteins are notoriously difficult to work with due to their low surface expression and cytotoxicity, but modifications such as mutations, truncations, and chimeras have enabled many of our membrane protein targets to be expressed at levels 10-100 fold higher than wild-type. Each target that we engineer is customized based on its underlying expression problem. Engineered receptors are used for internal projects, partner projects, and customer-based research projects however are not available as standard reagent Lipoparticles.
5What are the deliverables that I will receive upon completion of a project?
Upon completion of an MPS discovery project, customers receive an antibody discovery report containing data on hits, full antibody sequences, purified IgG, and expression plasmids with the cloned IgGs.

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We have worked with more than 100 top biotech and pharmaceutical companies to help them succeed. Let's talk about how we can help you.
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