EuroMAbNet: European Monoclonal Antibodies Network

Members

Hans Martin Jäck

Name of the laboratory

Members of the laboratory

Unit Leader

Hans Martin Jäck hans-martin.jaeck@fau.de

Technicians

Sebastian Schulz

Edith Roth

Laboratory activity

Our laboratory at the Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg focuses on the generation, characterization, and functional validation of monoclonal antibodies in the context of B-cell and plasma cell biology. We have established transgenic platforms for the discovery of fully human antibodies and routinely isolate hybridomas and clone antigen-specific B cells to generate monoclonal antibodies against clinically relevant targets.

Building on our established transgenic antibody discovery systems, we are developing next-generation antibody discovery platforms that integrate innovative discovery strategies to enable rapid, robust, and scalable discovery of monoclonal antibodies.

Techniques available

• Monoclonal antibody production in (humanized) mice
• Hybridoma technique
• Single-B cell cloning/sequencing
• Molecular biology/cloning techniques
• Gene modifications in cells by CRISP&Cas
• Recombinant antibody/antigen production in 293F cells
• Antibody purification and size-exclusion chromatography
• Antibody characterization and conjugation
• Flow cytometry, ELISA, immunofluorescence microscopy, etc.

Publications (2021-present)

• Schulz, S.R., Menzel, S.R., Wittner, J., Ulbricht, C., Liebheit, A.T., Roth, E.A., Mann-Nüttel, R., Scheu, S., Kueh, A., Jäck, A., et al. (2025). Decoding Plasma Cell Maturation Dynamics with BCMA. Front. Immunol. 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2025.1539773.
• Menzel, S.R., Roth, E., Wittner, J., Brey, S., Weckwerth, L., Thomas, J., Winkler, T.H., Schuh, W., Jäck, H.-M., Schulz, S.R. (2025). B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) is dispensable for the survival of long-lived plasma cells. Nat Commun 16, 7106. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62530-2.
• Zhang, L., Kempf, A., Nehlmeier, I., Cossmann, A., Richter, A., Bdeir, N., Graichen, L., Moldenhauer, A.-S., Dopfer-Jablonka, A., Stankov, M.V., et al. (2024). SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 enters lung cells and evades neutralizing antibodies with high efficiency. Cell 187, 596-608.e17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.12.025.
• Schulz, S.R., Hoffmann, M., Roth, E., Pracht, K., Burnett, D.L., Mazigi, O., Schuh, W., Manger, B., Mielenz, D., Goodnow, C.C., et al. (2022). Augmented neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant by boost vaccination and monoclonal antibodies. European Journal of Immunology 52, 970–977. https://doi.org/10.1002/eji.202249841.
• Peter, A.S., Roth, E., Schulz, S.R., Fraedrich, K., Steinmetz, T., Damm, D., Hauke, M., Richel, E., Mueller-Schmucker, S., Habenicht, K., et al. (2022). A pair of noncompeting neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies protecting from disease in a SARS-CoV-2 infection model. European Journal of Immunology 52, 770–783. https://doi.org/10.1002/eji.202149374.
• Hoffmann, M., Krüger, N., Schulz, S., Cossmann, A., Rocha, C., Kempf, A., Nehlmeier, I., Graichen, L., Moldenhauer, A.-S., Winkler, M.S., et al. (2022). The Omicron variant is highly resistant against antibody-mediated neutralization: Implications for control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cell 185, 447-456.e11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.12.032.
• Schuh, W., Baus, L., Steinmetz, T., Schulz, S.R., Weckwerth, L., Roth, E., Hauke, M., Krause, S., Morhart, P., Rauh, M., et al. (2021). A surrogate cell-based SARS-CoV-2 spike blocking assay. European Journal of Immunology 51, 2665-2676. https://doi.org/10.1002/eji.202149302.
• Hoffmann, M., Zhang, L., Krüger, N., Graichen, L., Kleine-Weber, H., Hofmann-Winkler, H., Kempf, A., Nessler, S., Riggert, J., Winkler, M.S., et al. (2021). SARS-CoV-2 mutations acquired in mink reduce antibody-mediated neutralization. Cell Reports 35, 109017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109017.
• Hoffmann, M., Arora, P., Groß, R., Seidel, A., Hörnich, B.F., Hahn, A.S., Krüger, N., Graichen, L., Hofmann-Winkler, H., Kempf, A., et al. (2021). SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.351 and P.1 escape from neutralizing antibodies. Cell 184, 2384-2393.e12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.036.