Description of service

Nanobodies are compact single Ig domains that bind target proteins with high affinity while reducing their coinformational heterogeneity, thereby stabilising multi-protein complexes. Their properties mean that nanobodies are versatile tools for structural biology.

Scientific relevance: Nanobody production has several applications relevant to vaccine design:

• Nanobody/protein complexes may be more stable than individual proteins, favouring crystallisation

  for X-ray analysis (including intrinsically disordered proteins)

• The CDR3 loop of nanobodies can extend into small cavities on antigenic surfaces which otherwise are

  difficult to measure or modulate, and nanobodies do not compete with classical antibodies that bind

  the same antigen. Some are in development as therapeutic agents.

• Nanobody reagents can capture transient protein conformations

• Nanobodies can be immuno-labelled for super-resolution imaging, spin-labelled for EPR spectroscopy

  or heavy metal labelled.

• Small size can be used in NMR methods, can act as NMR invisible probes for dynamic studies of protein

  conformation.