Patent ID: 8580714

Claim:
A method of affinity maturing an antibody, comprising the steps of: a. obtaining an amino acid sequence of the antibody light chain variable region (VL) or the antibody heavy chain variable region (VH); b. identifying rSDRU residues in the amino acid sequence of the antibody VL or VH; c. selecting a subset of the rSDRU residues to be diversified; d. selecting a set of amino acids or a universal set of amino acids used for diversifying the subset of the rSDRU residues; e. preparing a library of antibody VL or VH variants by diversifying the subset of the rSDRU residues selected in step c. with the set of amino acids selected in step d.; f. expressing the library of antibody VH or VL variants in a host or translating the library of antibody VH or VL variants in vitro; and g. selecting from the library of antibody VH or VL variants one or more affinity matured antibody having an improved affinity to an antigen, wherein the rSDRU residues to be diversified comprise the antibody VL Chotia residues 30a, 30c, 30d, 30f, 32, 50, 91, 92, 93, 94, and 96.