Yeast display of antibody fragments: a discovery and characterization platform.

Yeast display of antibody fragments has proven to be an efficient and productive means for directed evolution of single-chain Fv (scFv) antibodies for increased affinity and thermal stability and, more recently, for the display and screening of a non-immune scFv and immune Fab libraries. A major strength of yeast display as a novel antibody discovery platform is the ability to characterize the binding properties, i.e., the affinity and epitope binding characteristics, of a clone without the need for subcloning, expression and purification of the scFv. This review focuses on novel attributes of yeast display for antibody engineering endeavors.