Biotech Values

[jellybean]

<<<<I'd meant to ask earlier if phage display and affinity maturation tends to produce products with higher binding affinities than antibodies, or if this is the luck of the draw.>>>>>

I'm not sure what you mean by your question. Phage display, which is a tool for high throughput screening of protein interactions.

An antibody consists of several proteins each encoded by a different gene. The making and processing of an antibody in an organism (whether mouse or human) is a complex process involving gene splicing. Once an antibody has been "discovered" that fits the requirement specified by the investigator, the gene for the fragment recognition section can be isolated and inserted into a bacterial expression system, such as phage display. That system is then used to search for variations of the fragment recognition section that have higher binding affinity to the ligand, thereby optimizing efficacy.