Analytical tools are evolving to meet the need for the higher-throughput characterization of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. An antibody's epitope is arguably its most important property because it underpins its functional activity but, because epitope selection is innate, it remains an empirical process. Here, we focus on the emergence of label-free biosensors with throughput capabilities orders of magnitude higher than the previous state-of-the-art, which can facilitate large assays such as epitope binning so that they can be incorporated alongside functional activity screens, enabling the rapid identification of leads that exhibit unique and functional epitopes. In addition to streamlining the drug development process by saving time and cost, the information from epitope binning assays could provide the basis for intellectual property protection.
