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Small but Mighty
Article

Small but Mighty

Miniature antibodies discovered in sharks and camels are a boon for research and perhaps medicine.

Mitch Leslie
Science, 2018
References: Hamers-Casterman et al. (1993)
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Scientific
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Camels, llamas and sharks make antibodies smaller than humans’. After being discovered in the late 1980s, they have proven quite useful in the lab. In living organisms, their small size enables these “nanobodies” to bind to molecules and get into cellular spaces that larger antibodies can’t. Mitch Leslie’s article in Science describes a llama antibody’s role in research that was awarded a Nobel Prize – and how nanobodies may help human patients. getAbstract recommends this article to anyone curious about how new technologies get harnessed by researchers and clinicians.

Take-Aways

  • Camels, llamas and sharks make antibodies much smaller than humans’.
  • Nanobodies have already proven their utility in the lab.
  • Nanobodies are poised to be valuable clinically.

About the Author

Mitch Leslie writes for Science magazine about cell biology and immunology.

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