Patent ID: 8513164

Claim:
A method of identifying at least one gene encoding one or more human antibodies or antibody fragments having an optimized affinity, comprising the steps of: (a) expressing in a host cell a collection of genes encoding human antibodies or antibody fragments from a first library of genes, wherein said first library of genes comprises nucleic acids encoding a plurality of human VH and VL amino acid sequences, wherein each of said VH and VL amino acid sequences comprises four human consensus sequence framework regions interspaced by three complementary determining regions CDR1, CDR2, and CDR3, and wherein each of said nucleic acids encoding said VH and VL amino acid sequences contains DNA cleavage sites at the boundary between each consensus framework region and CDR region, wherein each of said cleavage sites is unique within said nucleic acid and is common to all nucleic acid sequences of said library at corresponding positions, wherein said first library of genes comprises nucleic acids encoding the human consensus sequence framework regions selected from the group consisting of VH1A (SEQ ID NO:56), VH1B (SEQ ID NO: 58), VH2 (SEQ ID NO: 60), VH3 (SEQ ID NO: 62), VH4 (SEQ ID NO: 64), VH5 (SEQ ID NO: 66), and VH6 (SEQ ID NO: 68); (b) isolating a plurality of human antibodies or antibody fragments that specifically bind an antigen by screening said collection of antibodies or antibody fragments against said antigen; (c) obtaining the genes encoding said plurality of human antibodies or antibody fragments isolated in step (b); (d) replacing one or more sub-sequences encoding a complementarity determining region of each of said genes obtained in step (c) with a pre-built library of compatible sub-sequences encoding complementarity determining regions to prepare a second library of genes, wherein said replacing step is carried out without determining the sequences of the nucleic acids obtained in step (c); (e) expressing in a host cell a collection of human antibodies or antibody fragments from said second, library of genes and screening said collection of human antibodies or antibody fragments against said antigen; (f) identifying one or more antibodies or antibody fragments that specifically bind said antigen and that have an optimized affinity compared to the antibodies or antibody fragments identified in step (b).