Antibody radiolabeling techniques to optimize cellular retention.

Radiolabeling of antibodies and antibody fragments facilitates the development of new targeted therapeutics or tracking and validation of biosimilars. The typical metal ion chelators that can be used for radiolabeling reactions have residualizing properties in tissues/tumors. A team at Genentech has developed an elegant new technique for combining iodine radiolabeling with an azamacrocyclic chelator to confer residualizing properties on the radioiodine metabolites. Robust protocols, such as this example, are required for the future development of protein based drugs.