DSHB Antibody Research, Production and Distribution Facility

Hybridoma technology has been critically important for biomedical research, allowing reproducible and scalable production of monoclonal antibodies for research and pharmaceutical development. Traditionally, hybridomas require cryopreservation and specialized cell culture expertise to reproducibly produce the monoclonal antibodies. These processes are also laborious, limiting the amount of antibody or hybridoma cell line that can be shared by the inventor scientist. The Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank (DSHB) was established under the auspices of the NIH/NICHD in 1986 for the express purpose of facilitating the open sharing of hybridomas and the monoclonal antibodies they produce. Since 1997, when DSHB became fully housed within the Biology Department at the University of Iowa (UI), this international resource has provided hybridomas and antibodies to thousands of institutions and many more investigators, at highly affordable prices. However, DSHB has lacked a centralized facility, its main operations being scattered in different parts of the Biology Department. DSHB is also now outgrowing existing production, storage, and order processing capacity. Further, because the amount of information needed for researchers to make the best-informed antibody choices for their work has grown, it is necessary for DSHB personnel to increasingly collaborate to develop our antibody knowledgebase. This proposal aims to construct a unified, more efficient research facility to consolidate DSHB in renovated space within the Department of Biology on the University of Iowa campus. This facility will allow for expanded production capacity and storage while optimizing workflow, improving environmental considerations, and ensuring future scalability for the business operations. The DSHB Facility will contain state-of-the-art equipment for producing monoclonal antibodies, including recombinant mAbs, at many different scales, as well as upgraded, secure cryostorage capabilities for hybridoma cell lines. Lab research space will accommodate ongoing high-throughput sequencing and creation of recombinant antibodies, and for validation of antibodies using knockout cells. Office space will be placed in proximity to the production and research areas, allowing for more efficient communication and better spontaneous interactions between units. Overall, the strategic goals of DSHB to provide researchers with a comprehensive antibody collection with an associated knowledgebase and to grow additional services, such as recombinant antibody distribution, will be greatly facilitated by consolidating the currently dispersed and inefficient operation sites into a single facility. Considering the constant level of self-sustained success of DSHB under less-than-ideal circumstances, matching the DSHB facilities with the staff's expertise and dedication can only improve DSHB's trajectory, ultimately to the benefit of researchers everywhere.