Monash University home to largest monoclonal antibody production facility in the Southern Hemisphere

Monash University has joined forces with international life sciences supply company Tecan to develop a new state-of-the-art monoclonal antibody production system at the University's Clayton campus.

Capable of producing thousands of novel antibodies every year for researchers around the world, the facility will be the largest of its type in the Southern Hemisphere.

Monoclonal antibodies are important scientific tools for laboratory research and are used as diagnostic agents for detecting cancer or infectious disease, as well as therapeutic agents for treating human disease.

In the research world, the use of monoclonal antibodies has proved crucial to the understanding of a myriad of physiological processes and has led to new approaches in the treatment of diseases with great unmet clinical need.

The problem for scientists is that there are not enough monoclonal antibodies being produced and the processes for research and potential treatments to diseases are delayed.

Director of the Monash Antibody Technology Facility within the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Alan Sawyer said: "Successful research relies on scientists having enough monoclonal antibodies to be able to test their theories and this facility will increase production of this valuable resource, ten-fold."

The new high-tech automated facility will increase production of monoclonal antibodies from hundreds to potentially 5000 a year.

The new facility will be developed by a team of engineers at Tecan's company headquarters in Switzerland, before being installed at the Monash Antibody Facility at Monash University's School of Biomedical Sciences at the Clayton campus.

The initial instalment of the robotic systems will begin at the end of 2007 and be finalised in March of 2008.

The new system, partially funded by the Victorian government and Monash University, National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and the Australian Stem Cell Centre, is the first major step towards an extensive development program planned for 2008, which will further strengthen Monash University's rising profile as a centre of excellence in the international medical research community.