Monoclonal antibodies for diagnostic tests and affinity chromatography: a first step to antibody engineering.

The hybridoma technology for obtaining murine monoclonal antibodies has been developed for the production of antibodies to human gonadotrophins and viral antigens. Various aspects of the hybridomna selection strategy and the cloning to continuous and stable antibody producing cell lines are reported. This leads to production of antibodies of predefined characteristics (antibody engineering). The application of monoclonal antibodies for diagnostics and for isolation of products in industrial processes are indicated.