During the last decade, recombinant antibody engineering has emerged as one
of the most promising approaches for the design, selection and production
of molecules for basic research, medicine and the pharmaceutical industry.
This MiniReview describes the major findings that have led to the developme
nt of this powerful technique, with an emphasis on the use of Escherichia c
oil and filamentous phage as a tool allowing powerful selection procedures
from large libraries as well as the use of intracellular expression of anti
body fragments as a new class of neutralizing molecules with a potential us
e in therapy. The future of these rapidly evolving technologies is discusse
d. (C) 2000 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by
Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.