Monoclonal IgY Antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have the advantages of high specificity and stable expression. Monoclonal IgY (mIgY) is a new antibody development that combines advantages of IgY and mAbs. mIgY have great potential for immunological detection and diagnosis, for screening and validating biomarkers and drug targets, and for the production of antibodies against conserved mammalian proteins. mIgY can be developed into small molecular weight antibody fragments (particularly scFv), chimeric and humanized antibodies to address the many challenges lying ahead to develop mAb for various biomedical applications, especially those for which conventional antibodies are ineffective. Hybridoma technology or display technology, including phage display, yeast surface display and ribosomal display, can be applied in mIgY generation. However, hybridoma technology is very inefficient in the chicken system due to the lack of a robust avian immortal cell line for hybridoma cell generation. New technologies and different types of antibodies are likely to broaden the application of avian antibodies.