Patent ID: 7405062

Claim:
A process for isolating a nucleic acid encoding a protein that binds to a target antigen, comprising: (a) exposing a plurality of nucleic acids encoding a plurality of different proteins that bind a plurality of different antigens to a pluratity of promoter-linked primers in a single reaction mixture under conditions suitable to produce a DNA comprising a nucleic acid that functions as an RNA polymerase promoter, wherein said promoter-linked primers consist of an RNA polymerase promoter sequence and a gene-specific sequence; (b) transcribing said DNA of step (a) with a suitable RNA polymerase to produce plural RNAs; (c) reverse transcribing said plural RNAs to produce plural reverse transcribed DNA; (d) exposing said plural reverse transcribed DNA to said plurality of promoter-linked primers under conditions suitable to produce additional DNA comprising nucleic acid that functions as an RNA polymerase promoter; (e) transcribing said additional DNA of step (d) with a suitable RNA polymerase to produce additional plural RNAs; (f) cloning said DNA, RNA or functional parts thereof under conditions that enable expression of said protein; (g) expressing proteins encoded by said cloned DNA or RNA of step (f); and (h) screening said expressed proteins with said target antigen to identify a protein that specifically binds thereto, thereby identifying a nucleic acid encoding a protein that binds to said antigen.