Antibody DNA

Why use recombinant antibodies or antibody mimetics?

Empowering researchers and suppliers to embrace a more ethical, efficient, and reliable future in biomedical science

Scientific, Economic, and Ethical Drivers for Phasing Out Animal Use in Antibody Production

While traditional animal-derived antibodies ( polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies) are widely used in research, diagnostics and therapeutics, they often prove unreliable, failing to consistently recognise their targets. This issue contributes significantly to the “reproducibility crisis” in scientific research, leading to millions of dollars wasted on unreliable products and discarded experiments. According to the Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC) working group of the EU Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EURL ECVAM):

“At an annual worldwide spending of $1.6 billion on the antibody market, and with only 5-49% functionality being reported in monoclonal reagents alone, a staggering annual loss of $800 million to the biomedical research community is estimated, without counting the additional and unaccounted cost for waste in materials, time, money and follow-on research.”

Beyond the scientific and economic challenges, there is a clear ethical imperative to replace animals in antibody production. Approximately 1 million animals are used in antibody production annually in Europe, with global estimates ranging from 5.2 to 13 million animals per year. These figures may be underestimated, as many countries do not publish data on animal usage in research, particularly for custom-made antibodies.

In 2020, the EU Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing (EURL ECVAM) issued recommendations to phase out animal-derived antibodies:

“…animals should no longer be used for the development and production of antibodies for research, regulatory, diagnostic and therapeutic application. The provisions of Directive 2010/63/EU should be respected and EU countries should no longer authorise the development and production of antibodies through animal immunisation, where robust, legitimate scientific justification is lacking.”

Recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics represent a scientifically superior and ethical alternative to traditional antibodies.

Although the ECVAM recommendations mark a pivotal step towards reducing animal use, a complete shift to recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics will only be realised when end users actively prioritise and demand them. This change is essential for making them the standard choice in academic and commercial laboratories worldwide.

EURL ECVAM recommendation on non-animal-derived antibodies Laboratory workers

Advantages of recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics

Specificity and High Affinity

Contaminating off-target sequences, which recognise their targets less efficiently and with reduced avidity, affect approximately 32% of monoclonal antibodies produced from hybridomas. By contrast, access to the DNA sequence in recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics ensures that all binding sites are precisely defined and specific to the intended target, significantly enhancing their reliability and performance.

Consistency and Reproducibility

Produced using well-defined DNA sequences, recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics eliminate the risk of drifts or variations between batches. This results in lower batch-to-batch variation, enhanced reliability, and improved reproducibility in experimental research.

More Human-Specific

Recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics can be fully humanised, ensuring that experimental results are more directly translatable to human biology. Similarly, most mimetics are specifically engineered for seamless compatibility with humans, enhancing their applicability in therapeutic and diagnostic contexts.

More Ethical

Wider adoption of recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics would significantly alleviate the suffering of millions of animals worldwide. By replacing traditional methods that involve potentially toxic and lethal immunisations, repeated blood collection, and painful ascites procedures, these alternatives provide an ethical, humane, and scientifically superior solution.

More Cost-Effective

Recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics offer significant cost savings by delivering more reproducible and reliable results, reducing the need for large quantities of antigens, and eliminating expenses associated with animal housing, maintenance, staff training in animal handling, and immunisation procedures. This efficiency makes them a more economical and ethical choice for researchers.

Scalability and Speed of Production

Validated recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics can be produced in approximately 2–8 weeks, with mimetics often requiring as little as 2 weeks, compared to the 4+ months typically needed to produce antibodies using animals. Because recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics are generated entirely in vitro, the process is more controlled, efficient, and easily scalable, making them a faster and more flexible alternative for research and industrial applications.

Unlimited Supply

Recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics be resynthesized on demand due to the availability of their genetic sequence, ensuring a consistent and unlimited supply. In contrast, polyclonal antibodies produced in animals are limited by the animal’s lifespan, making them less reliable for long-term or large-scale needs.

Increased Versatility

Highly adaptable in design, allowing for the creation of various sizes, fragments, enzyme fusions, dimers, multimers, or the addition of tags and fluorescent proteins. Recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics can also be modified to enhance binding affinity, improve stability, or alter immunogenicity or be engineered as carriers to deliver drugs to specific cells or tissues, making them a versatile and promising tool in developing innovative therapeutic strategies.

Broader Applicability

Without the need for immunisation, recombinant antibodies and antibody mimetics can be engineered to target a wide variety of challenging molecules, including toxic, non-immunogenic, non-biological, pathogenic, conserved, and self-antigens. This versatility enables their use in applications that traditional antibodies often cannot address.

Recombinant antibodies in action: COVID-19

Just one great example of the potential development speed and reproducibility of recombinant antibodies comes from a collaboration between Active Motif Shanghai (a subsidiary of Active Motif, Inc.), Fudan University and its affiliated Public Health Clinical Center. This group was able to quickly isolate, clone, express, purify and characterise antibodies from patients infected with the COVID-19 virus.

Using Active Motif’s proprietary AbEpic™ platform, they developed and characterise 9 recombinant human antibodies against the SARS-Cov-2 spike protein within just a few weeks. These antibodies are currently being further developed and validated by other researchers for use in diagnostic assays.

Development & Characterization of Recombinant Human COVID-19 Antibodies