Bio Antibody R&D Module: How to use

The Antibody R&D module in Patsnap Bio brings together antibody, binding unit, sequence, antigen, patent, and experimental evidence to support antibody discovery and R&D workflows.

This walkthrough will guide you through performing a search, filtering results, exploring sequence-level insights, and integrating deeper context across organisms, drug development, and competitive intelligence.

Step 1: Conduct a search

Start by entering the information you already know into the Antibody R&D search bar.

You can search by:

• Antigen: Find antibodies associated with a specific antigen or target.
• Drug: Find a specific drug record and its associated antibody sequence information.
• Antibody: Find a specific named antibody.
• Patent: Find antibodies disclosed in a specific patent.
• Seq code: Find antibodies associated with a specific sequence code.
• Keyword: Run a broader search across searchable antibody and antigen names.

Different search types use different retrieval logic, so result sets may vary depending on the input type you select. Use a specific search type when you know the entity you want to find, and use Keyword for broader discovery.

Step 2: Review your search results

After running your search, choose the result view that best matches what you want to investigate: Antibodies, Binding Units, or Patents.

• Use the Antibodies view for candidate discovery and whole-molecule comparison. Each row represents an antibody. For bispecific or multispecific antibodies, the binding arms are grouped within the antibody record.

  This view is useful when you want to compare antibody formats, review molecule-level information, or shortlist candidates before investigating individual binding arms.

• Use the Binding Units view to examine and compare individual binding units within an antibody. A bispecific antibody with two binding units can appear as two rows so that each arm can be reviewed separately.

  This view is useful for comparing VH and VL sequences, germlines, light-chain type, CDR information, isoelectric point, net charge, and available activity data such as KD, EC50, and IC50.

• Use the Patents view for patent-focused investigation, including IP landscaping and tracing antibodies back to patent filings.

  The Antibody Count displays a Hit/Total value. Hit is the number of antibodies in the patent that match your current search criteria, while Total is the total number of antibodies associated with that patent.

  Click the count to return to the matching antibody records.

Step 3: Filter and refine your results

Use the filters on the left side of the results page to narrow your result set.

1. Select the filters you want to apply.
2. Click Refine or Exclude to update the results.
3. Click Clear All to remove the selected criteria.

Note: You can filter for drugs that are linked to our Synapse database through the filter called "Source."

Step 4: Review antibody and sequence details

Click an Antibody ID to open the antibody detail panel.

Depending on the available source data, you can review:

• Antibody format and source.
• Individual binding units or arms.
• Heavy- and light-chain sequences.
• Germline and CDR annotations.
• Fragment length.
• Isoelectric point and net charge.
• Fc mutations.
• In vitro bioactivity.
• In vivo bioactivity.
• PK assay data.

For bispecific or multispecific antibodies, review each binding unit separately to understand the target and sequence associated with each arm.

• Click a heavy- or light-chain sequence to review its Fv sequence details.

  Depending on the record, you can review information such as Fv length, V/J gene information, germline comparison, and CDR regions.

  You can also switch between supported antibody numbering schemes, including IMGT, Kabat, and Chothia.

  

Step 5: Explore related antigen and drug information

Where available, linked antigen and drug records provide additional biological and development context.

• Click a linked antigen to open its detail page.

  Antigen details can include the standardized name, synonyms, research context, associated drugs, organism information, and related gene or protein sequences. Sequence records can also be filtered by organism and gene sequence type.

  Only antigens mapped to a standardized entity are linked to a detail page. Unmapped antigens are displayed by name only.

  

• Click a linked drug name to review its Drug Detail page in Bio.

  Drug information retrieved from Patsnap Synapse can include the drug overview, clinical trial analysis, development information, and sequence or modification details where available.

  Some drugs do not have publicly disclosed sequences, and some drug records may not yet be linked to a sequence. Direct sequence information may therefore be unavailable for some drugs.

  

Step 6: Continue your analysis in Biosequence Search

Sequence records in Antibody R&D connect with Biosequence Search so that you can continue sequence-level investigation without manually re-entering the sequence.

1. Open the relevant sequence detail page.
2. Choose the option to search using the sequence or selected CDR regions.
3. Continue the analysis in Biosequence Search with the information auto populated. 

Step 7: Save and compare antibodies

After identifying candidates of interest, save them to Antibody Collection for side-by-side comparison.

1. Select the antibody or binding-unit records you want to save.

2. Click Save to Antibody Collection.

   

3. Select an existing collection or create a new collection.

   

4. Open the collection to compare the saved records. 

   You can sort by VH or VL germline and expand/collapse VH and VL sequences to focus the comparison. You can also export your saved Antibody Collection into an HTML file. 

   

A collection can contain up to 200 VH-VL binding-unit entries.

When working from the Antibodies view, the complete antibody and its associated arms can be saved. When working from the Binding Units view, the selected binding unit or arm is the unit used for comparison.

Step 8: Export your results

Export selected search results when you want to continue your analysis outside the platform.

1. Select the records you want to export.

2. Click Export.

   

3. Select the antibody and binding-unit fields you want to include.

   

4. Start the export.

Exported data are provided as a flattened table at the antibody-arm level. A multi-arm antibody can therefore appear across multiple rows in the exported file.

Exporting in Patent View is not available. You can view the selected records in Analytics and export from there. 

Additional tool: Search History

Use Search History to return to previous Antibody R&D searches.

Each search history entry retains the most recently applied filter settings, allowing you to continue a previous analysis without rebuilding the search.

Key Takeaways

• Start by searching for an antigen, drug, antibody, patent number, sequence code, or keyword.
• Use Antibodies for whole-molecule analysis, Binding Units for arm-level comparison, and Patents for patent-focused investigation.
• Refine your results using the available antibody, sequence, activity, drug, and patent filters.
• Review antibody and sequence details to investigate binding units, germlines, CDRs, Fc mutations, bioactivity, and PK data where available.
• Save selected candidates to Antibody Collection to compare their sequences, mutations, germlines, and activity data side by side.
• For additional information, please visit: Bio Antibody R&D - Glossary and FAQs – Patsnap Help Center