Nanobody (VHH)
Nanobodies, often called VHH antibodies, are single domain antibody fragments derived from heavy chain only antibodies. Their compact size and stability make them useful for research tools, diagnostics, and therapeutic development.
HVV AI focuses on structure aware nanobody discovery workflows that produce ranked, decision-ready panels for wet lab handoff. See the overview on the homepage.
What is a Nanobody (VHH)
A VHH is the variable domain of a heavy chain only antibody. Unlike conventional antibodies that use paired heavy and light chains, a VHH can function as a standalone binding unit. This makes nanobodies easier to express and engineer in many settings.
Nanobody discovery
Discovery approaches generally fall into two buckets: immune repertoires and synthetic libraries. Candidates are typically enriched and screened using display technologies and binding assays, then refined based on affinity, specificity, and developability signals.
Immunization followed by library construction and selection can yield high affinity binders.
Engineered diversity supports rapid exploration of sequence space and target classes.
Display selection plus assay validation helps move from binders to usable panels.
VHH generation and engineering
After sequence identification, VHH generation usually includes cloning, expression, purification, and basic characterization. Engineering steps can optimize stability, affinity, solubility, and manufacturability depending on the end use.
- Expression and purification of VHH candidates
- Binding confirmation and basic affinity characterization
- Stability and aggregation risk checks
- Optional engineering: multivalency, fusions, humanization strategies
Applications
Nanobodies are used across imaging, structural biology, diagnostics, and therapeutic research. Their small size can help access challenging epitopes and enable compact formats such as fusions and multi-specific constructs.