Phage display antibody libraries have proven an invaluable resource for the isolation of diagnostic and potentially therapeutic antibodies, the latter usually being antibody fragments converted into IgG formats. Recent advances in the production of highly diverse and functional antibody libraries are considered here, including for Fabs, scFvs and nanobodies. These advances include codon optimisation during generation of CDR diversity, improved display levels using novel signal sequences, molecular chaperones and isomerases and the use of highly stable scaffolds with relatively high expression levels. In addition, novel strategies for the batch reformatting of scFv and Fab phagemid libraries, derived from phage panning, into IgG formats are described. These strategies allow the screening of antibodies in the end-use format, facilitating more efficient selection of potential therapeutics.

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The in vitro amplification of prions by serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification has been shown to detect PrPSc to levels at least as sensitive as rodent bioassay but in a fraction of the time. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a zoonotic prion disease in cattle and has been shown to occur in 3 distinct forms, classical BSE (C-BSE) and 2 atypical BSE forms (L-BSE and H-BSE). Atypical forms are usually detected in asymptomatic, older cattle and are suggested to be spontaneous forms of the disease. Here, we show the development of a serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification method for the detection of H-BSE. The assay could detect PrPSc from 3 distinct experimental isolates of H-BSE, could detect PrPSc in as little as 1×10−12 g of brain material and was highly specific. Additionally, the product of serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification at all dilutions of seed analyzed could be readily distinguished from L-BSE, which did not amplify, and C-BSE, which had PrPSc with distinct protease K-resistance and protease K-resistant PrPSc molecular weights.