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Characteristics
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Antibodies - extremely powerful tools in biomedical research - are large complex molecules (~ 150 kDa) consisting of two heavy and two light chains. Due to their complex structure, the use of antibodies is often limited and hindered by batch-to-batch variations.
Camelidae (camels, dromedaries, llamas and alpacas) possess functional antibodies devoid of light chains, so-called heavy chain antibodies (hcAbs). hcAbs recognize and bind their antigens via a single variable domain (VHH). These VHH domains are the smallest intact antigen binding fragments (~ 13 kDa).
Nano-Traps are based on single domain antibody fragments (VHHs) derived from alpaca.
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