Dictionary

Vocabulary Terms from Chapter 3

All definitions paraphrased from the textbook: Punt, Jenni, et al. Kuby Immunology. 8th ed., New York, Macmillan Education, 2019.

No relevant readily available public domain photos available at this time.

1. hybridoma- a cell group born from a cell resulting from marriage of a typical lymphocyte and a myeloma cell. These are utilized for the purpose of monoclonal antibody development. (G-9)

Hybridomas are an example of how humans on larger scale exemplify traits of both of their parents. Like their lymphocyte ancestors, they have the ability to create antibodies or T-cell receptors, whereas they inherited their ability to grow 'immortally' from their myeloma ancestor.

2. avidity- closely linked with the term 'affinity,' this word is used to describe 'the strength of antigen-antibody binding' resulting from an antigen's epitopes engaging with antibody's binding sites. (G-3)

There is a different in the avidity demonstrated in univalent and bivalent interactions, with it being greater in bivalent reactions because the connection between to two cells is able to be maintained in the event that a single site and a ligand disconnect temporarily. (p.71)

3. multivalency - the condition of containing multiple ligand binding sites (G-14)

B-cells are an example of cells expressing multivalency, which allows for reversibility of noncovalent bonds of the ligand with the receptor. (p. 71)