Patent ID: 8206936

Claim:
An antibody competition assay method for determining antibodies that bind to an epitope on an antigen, comprising: providing a set of antibodies that bind to an antigen; labeling each antibody of said set to form a labeled reference antibody set such that each labeled reference antibody is distinguishable from every other labeled reference antibody in said labeled reference antibody set; selecting a probe antibody from said set of antibodies that bind to the antigen; contacting said probe antibody with said labeled reference antibody set in the presence of said antigen; detecting said probe antibody in a complex comprising said antigen, one labeled reference antibody bound to said antigen, and said labeled probe antibody bound to said antigen; identifying each said labeled reference antibody bound to said antigen in each said complex; determining whether said probe antibody competes with any reference antibody in said labeled reference antibody set, wherein competition indicates that said probe antibody binds to the same epitope as another antibody in said set of antibodies that bind to an antigen.