Affinity Reagents for the Immune System of Guinea Pigs – IL1B, IL2, IL4, IL6, IL8, IL10, IL12 & IL13 (Phase II)

Qoolabs, Inc., Carlsbad CA

Investigators

Abstract

Guinea pigs have been used as experimental animals for centuries. Due to their biological similarities to humans, guinea pigs were used in many fields of biomedical research, such as nutritional research, vaccine research and development, hormonal studies, auditory system studies, and infectious disease studies. The usefulness of guinea pig as a small animal model for biomedical research has been constrained by the lack of immunological reagents, particularly for immunological analysis. Qoolabs has developed a robust method of generating recombinant rabbit monoclonal antibodies from peripheral blood (QMab™). In this project, we propose to develop monoclonal antibodies to selected immune targets of guinea pig. In previous phase I studies, antibodies to selected cytokines were developed and characterized. In this Phase II study, these rabbit monoclonal antibodies will be further developed into affinity reagents and immunoassays for immunology studies, providing essential tools to biomedical research involving guinea pig models.