scfv library screening

Antibody scFv fragments (single-chain Fv) are popular recombinant antibody formats and the smallest antibody fragments capable of recognizing an antigen, but often suffer from limited stability. Phage display is a powerful tool in antibody engineering and is also applicable for stability selection. ScFv is well displayed on filamentous phage and is often the preferred antibody format in antibody engineering. ScFv variants with improved stability can be selected from large randomly mutated phage displayed libraries with a specific antigen after the unstable variants have been inactivated by heat or chaotropic agents. ScFv molecules combine the coding sequence of the variable heavy (VH) and sequence of the variable light chain (VL) domains of an antibody in a single-gene encoded format. The resulting polypeptides, with the variable light (VH ) and heavy chain (VH ) domains connected by a flexible peptide linker, were assemble into functional antigen-binding sites.