Fortis Life Sciences has introduced the AbNano® VHH Anti-NK Cell Library — a first-in-class single-domain antibody repertoire derived from peripheral natural killer cells, built for translational and therapeutic programs that target complex NK-associated receptor systems.
Antibody discovery and engineering in NK-cell systems is technically demanding: receptor complexity, heterogeneous expression patterns and dynamic functional states all make these targets hard to interrogate. Natural killer cells have become an increasingly important focus in cancer immunotherapy and immune-mediated disease research because of their central role in immune surveillance.
Compact VHH domains can offer an advantage for conformational or hard-to-access NK-associated targets that conventional antibody formats struggle with. The new library addresses those challenges with a naturally derived repertoire aligned to NK-cell biology, giving academic and biopharma teams a differentiated starting point for binder discovery, target evaluation, assay development and downstream engineering.
“NK-associated receptor systems are inherently difficult to interrogate using conventional discovery approaches.”
Chris Woodward, Fortis Life SciencesWhat the validation showed
Internal validation identified binders across multiple NK-associated targets with distinct biological functions and expression patterns:
- CD56 (NCAM) — the major NK marker, used as the primary enrichment target.
- CD8a — a minor-subset marker, demonstrating coverage beyond the dominant population.
- NKp46 — an activating receptor relevant to engager and CAR-NK design.
Sequencing analysis characterised broad CDR3 length and structural diversity across the repertoire, which supports recovery of binders against recessed and conformational epitopes.
AbNano® VHH Anti-NK Cell Library
See the full data pack, supported research areas and screening workflow — or talk to the discovery team about your target.
Available as a product or as a service
The library can be licensed for internal screening or combined with AbNano discovery services — phage display selection, sequence analysis, recombinant conversion and lead progression — depending on how much of the workflow a team wants to run in house.
About Fortis Life Sciences
Fortis Life Sciences was established in 2020 and brings together seven trusted brands across antibodies, diagnostic components, molecular biology reagents, engineered nanoparticles and viral vector platforms, so research, diagnostic and therapeutic programs can move forward with one integrated partner.