Fundamentals of antibody-related therapy and diagnostics

Antibodies for therapy and diagnostics form one of the fastest growing segments of the pharmaceutical market. The combination of hybridoma and recombinant DNA technologies have led to an increased production of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), including fully human MAbs, that can be tailored for specific applications. With advances in imaging methods, MAbs are increasingly used os in vivo diagnostic tools. Therapeutic MAbs, used to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases, have proven beneficial in the clinic. An overview is presented of the history, current state and future perspectives of this emergent field.