Consultancy services

Ian Wilkinson, the founder and sole proprietor of mAbvice provides consulting services on a range of topics. The list below links through to further information on each topic:

If you are interested in working with mAbvice in any capacity, or for further information, please click the link below.

Contact form

Antibody engineering

Discovery of an antibody with the appropriate binding affinity and selectivity is obviously key to the success of any antibody based project but there are many other considerations on top of this:

Selection of appropriate isotype, subtype and allotype
Selection of the appropriate format, for example a classical IgG, an antibody fragment (Fab, scFv, scFv-Fc, minibody, diabody etc) or more complex designs
Choice of Fc silencing mutations, such as the use of IgG4, LALA, aglycosylated or other approaches
Use of Fc mutations or glycoengineering to enhance Fc effector function (i.e. ADCC and CDC)
Design of antibody-drug conjugates

With over 15 years of antibody engineering experience working initially from within bio-pharma then as a service provider and now as a consultant, I can help guide you on making these critical decisions to design the optimal antibody for your specific needs. I also have an in-depth knowledge of the intellectual property landscape and freedom to operate when considering some of these different antibody engineering strategies.

If you wish to discuss your antibody engineering requirements please use the contact form at the top of the page.

Bispecific antibodies

Targeting two or more antigens or epitopes with a single entity is not as straight forward as people often assume. There are well over 100 different design options for bispecific antibodies and this number only grows further if you start to consider trispecific and tetraspecifics. Which option is best for your project is a complex mixture of: half-life requirements; desire to include or exclude Fc effector function; molecular size limitations; IP considerations and target antigen and any implications on valency (e.g. you would typically target CD3 epsilon with a single arm rather than two). I have extensive experience in guiding clients through this minefield of options and have worked with many of the well cited formats and technologies such as: BiTEs; DARTs; tandem scFvs; diabodies; knobs-into-holes IgGs; CrossMAb; Duobody; IgG-scFv; and many many more.

If you wish to discuss your multi-specific antibody project please use the contact form at the top of the page.

Fc fusion proteins

The Fc domain of IgGs provides antibodies with a naturally long serum half-life and use of the Fc domain is now a widely used approach to extend the half-life of other non-antibody proteins by creating so called Fc fusion proteins. I have extensive experience designing, expressing and purifying Fc fusion proteins of all types.

Traditional dimeric N or C-terminal fusions
Heterodimeric fusions with a single copy of the protein (e.g. through knobs-into-holes mutations)
Monomeric fusion proteins containing a monomeric Fc
'Multi-specific' fusion proteins consisting of 2 or more different proteins fused to a homodimeric or heterodimeric Fc
Extensive experience with linker design
Incorporation of Fc mutations to enhance or silence the effector function (ADCC and CDC) and/or extend half-life

If you wish to discuss your Fc fusion protein project please use the contact form at the top of the page.

Antibody sequencing

I developed the hybridoma sequencing methods that are used by Absolute Antibody. Originally we used traditional sequencing approaches, namely V-region PCR and 5' RACE. Using these methods we sequenced over 300 hybridomas. I then oversaw the design and implementation of a novel next generation sequencing (NGS) based approach to sequencing hybridomas, which has now been used to successfully sequence in excess of 4000 hybridomas from a variety of different species (mouse, rat, hamster, rabbit, human). During the course of this work I co-authored a publication with scientists from 16 different organisations describing the complexities of hybridoma sequencing and how they are often not monoclonal - mAbs article available here.

I also have experience with de novo protein sequencing by mass spectrometry based approaches.

If you wish to discuss your requirements for antibody sequencing please use the contact form at the top of the page.

Half-life extension

I have a wide range of experiences with common approaches to extend the half-life of antibody and non-antibody based proteins.

Fusion to the Fc domain (see section on Fc fusion proteins)
Use of Fc mutations to further enhance pH dependent FcRn binding and thus extend serum half-life
Fusion to albumin
Fusion to albumin binding domains, typically scFv, VHH or V-NAR
Fusion to albumin binding peptides
Fusion to FcRn binding domains
Chemical conjugation to peptides, e.g. PEGylation
Use of biological peptides, such as HASylation or PASylation

If you wish to discuss your requirements for half-life extension please use the contact form at the top of the page.

Transient expression

I have over a decade of experience in developing and optimizing mammalian transient expression systems for both Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) and Human Embryonic Kidney 293 (HEK) cells.

Adaptation of adherent HEK and CHO cells to suspension culture
Adaptation of cells to serum free media
PEI transfection
Lipid transfection (e.g. expiCHO and expi293)
Electroporation using a MaxCyte system
Process optimization to achieve gram/litre titres through selection of appropriate media, feeds, temperature shifts etc
Choice and design of plasmids and genetic elements (promoter, signal peptide, terminator, codon optimization etc)
Consideration on the design and implementation of transient GMP production of antibodies (part of a SARS-CoV-2 government funded project)

If you wish to discuss your transient expression requirements please use the contact form at the top of the page.

Antibody humanization

Over the last 10 years I have successfully humanized over 140 antibodies for clients in large pharma, biotech and academia. These antibodies have primarily been of mouse origin but I also have experience with humanizing rat, hamster, rabbit, chicken and camelid antibodies. I have extensive understanding of:

Structure guided humanization
CDR grafting, including incorporation of back mutations
Resurfacing or veneering
Selection of appropriate human germlines
Identification of CDRs by Kabat, Chothia, IMGT, AHo and Martin definitions

I have a separate website (www.antibodyhumanization.com) dedicated to antibody humanization. This describes the service in more detail as well as giving a lot of background information in humanization and associated topics. For further information please contact me through either the contact forms on either website.

Blood-brain barrier delivery

Having worked as part of a platform development team on blood-brain barrier (BBB) delivery at MedImmune (now AstraZeneca), I am familiar with the challenges of targeting biological molecules to the brain. In particular my knowledge is around the design of antibodies or other proteins to obtain moderate levels of BBB transcytosis. Most typically this can be achieved through fusion or conjugation to IgGs, smaller antibody fragments (e.g. scFv or VHH) or alternative proteins and peptides targeting receptors expressed at the BBB. The most common approach is targeting the Transferrin receptor (TfR) but other approaches have been reported with varying success.

If you wish to discuss the variety of options that may be available to you, including considerations around intellectual property then please use the contact form at the top of the page.

Excel for biotechnology

Excel is often thought of as a tool for accountants but it is an excellent tool for manipulating any character, whether it be a number or letter. With an understanding of how to write formulas and simple macros you can utilise Excel to massively increase the efficiency of your lab-based processes. Over the last 15 years I have used Excel for transfection calculations, Sanger sequencing, DNA to protein translation, stock control, scheduling and many other things. Once implemented such spreadsheet systems can be easily utilised by non-experts and save many hours or laborious manual calculations that are prone to errors. Implemented correctly such approaches can be a real benefit to a lab without having to go to the extent of implementing a costly and all consuming LIMS system.

If you wish to discuss your how Excel could be better utilised to help your lab process please use the contact form at the top of the page.

Biotech startups

Scientific excellence is clearly critical to the building of a successful biotechnology company but it does not guarantee success. Just as important are all the other business activities that go around this: operational efficiency; sales & marketing; building a great team; strategy; funding; leadership & management etc. As a successful entrepreneur that has taken one company (Absolute Antibody) from incorporation to acquisition and is in the process of building up a second company (mAbsolve), I have an understanding of the challenges that come with growing from startup to established business.

If you wish to discuss how I might be able to be of service to you in growing your business then please use the contact form at the top of this page.