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Biologist Discusses Work on Antibodies
Work by Prof. Azad Kaushik, Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB), on the genetic origin of cattle antibodies was spotlighted at the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists last month in San Diego. Kaushik was an invited speaker at the meeting, where he also co-chaired a session on comparative immunoglobulin structure and function.
He discovered these antibodies — among the largest known — in 1998 with then graduate student Surinder Saini. Another grad student, Farbod Shojaei, conducted followup studies.
Madhuri Koti, a recent MCB PhD graduate, has found the cow genes that produce these antibodies. Koti and Kaushik have engineered antibodies against bovine herpes virus type I. Working with Prof. Eva Nagy, Pathobiology, the researchers have tested the efficacy of engineered antibodies for treating respiratory and genital diseases caused by this virus in cattle. Those diseases cost the Canadian cattle industry about $100 million a year.
Kaushik says these antibodies are unusually large, making them easier to work with. Genetic engineering to manipulate these molecules may yield new diagnostic tools, drugs or therapies for use in cattle, he says.
His work has been supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.