Patent ID: 7968297

Claim:
A method for identifying hyperimmune serum reactive antigens of a pathogen comprising: providing an antibody preparation from a plasma pool of a given type of animal or from a human plasma pool or individual sera with antibodies against a specific pathogen; providing at least one genomic frame-selected bacterial FhuA surface expression library of said specific pathogen; screening said at least one genomic frame-selected bacterial FhuA surface expression library with said antibody preparation; identifying antigens which bind in said screening to antibodies in said antibody preparation; screening the identified antigens with individual antibody preparations from individual sera from individuals with antibodies against said specific pathogen, wherein the individuals have an antibody titer against said specific pathogen of higher than 90 th percentile and an IgG titer above 10000 U; and identifying hyperimmune serum-reactive antigens that bind to a portion of said individual antibody preparations from said individual sera.