monoclonal antibody


nounBiotechnology.
  1. antibody produced by a laboratory-grown cell clone, either of a hybridoma or a virus-transformed lymphocyte, that is more abundant and uniform than natural antibody and is able to bind specifically to a single site on almost any chosen antigen or reveal previously unknown antigen sites: used as an analytic tool in scientific research and medical diagnosis and potentially important in the treatment of certain diseases. Abbreviation: MAb

Origin of monoclonal antibody

1
First recorded in 1970–75

Words Nearby monoclonal antibody

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How to use monoclonal antibody in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for monoclonal antibody

monoclonal antibody

/ (ˌmɒnəʊˈkləʊnəl) /


noun
  1. an antibody, produced by a single clone of cells grown in culture, that is both pure and specific and is capable of proliferating indefinitely to produce unlimited quantities of identical antibodies: used in diagnosis, therapy, and biotechnology

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