The technology is housed in the Monash Antibody Technology Facility (MATF) where researchers not only from Monash University but elsewhere in Victoria, Australia and worldwide can utilize their services for antibody production, assay development, robotics, high throughput screening and antibody characterization.

Since acquiring the Beacon Platform in early 2022, MATF scientists have developed significant expertise in using the Berkeley Lights technology and workflows. Specifically, the Beacon Platform has enabled them to expand their antibody discovery capacity beyond traditional hybridoma techniques, allowing them to offer a wider portfolio to their customers especially those with difficult targets using the Beacon single B cell-screening platforms for rapid antibody discovery.

In addition to MATF, Dr. Remy Robert, head of the Robert Lab associated with the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, and a member of the Immunity Program and the Department of Physiology, and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, is utilizing the Beacon Platform. Dr. Robert and other lab associates are developing new classes of therapeutic mAbs against difficult targets using cutting-edge technologies like the Beacon Platform in mAbs development, engineering, and pre-clinical validation.

Dr. Yue Geng, general manager of the Platform business at Berkeley Lights, said, "We are pleased to be partnering with the Monash Antibody Technology Facility at Monash University and supporting their scientists in their adoption of the Berkeley Lights Platform for antibody discovery. Monash University has quickly adopted our advanced technology to further their scientific expertise and enable the advancement of critical therapeutics to market. We look forward to enabling Monash University as one of the world's leading high-impact research institutions."

Some of the research advantages that Monash has experienced to date by using the Beacon Platform include:

• Accelerating the screening of primary B cells on the Berkeley Lights Beacon system for antibody discovery by weeks compared to the standard hybridoma process;
• Facilitating rapid screening of thousands of single plasma cells on the same day as cell isolation; and
• Identifying target-binding candidates in just one day, and sequencing of variable chains as well as generating recombinant antibodies in 2–4 weeks.