The specificity of 3GA5 was further confirmed by differential staining between CHO cells transfected with human CD9P-1 cDNA (CHO-CD9P-1 cells) and wild type CHO cells using 3GA5 Ph-Ab (Figure 3A). metastasis. Moreover, the 3GA5 scFv was rapidly internalized into breast tumor cells and could have potential for the targeted delivery of cytotoxic brokers to breast cancers. This study is the proof of theory that the direct selection of phage antibody libraries on tumor cells can effectively lead to the identification and functional characterization of relevant tumor markers. Keywords: phage display, scFv, intrabody, tumor marker, internalization, CD9P-1, transferrin receptor 1. Introduction The identification and characterization of tumor specific Vildagliptin markers remains a major goal in both understanding the cellular transformation Vildagliptin observed in cancer and in developing targets for the molecular therapy of cancer. Molecules that are tumor-specific or overexpressed in cancer are likely to have functional roles that participate in cellular transformation and migration. Targeting of such molecules can result in an anti-tumor effect and therefore utility in cancer therapy. Examples of molecules involved in carcinogenesis that have been targeted successfully are ErbB2 (Baselga et al., 1998; Slamon et al., 2001), EGFR TMOD3 (Grunwald and Hidalgo, 2003; Mendelsohn and Baselga, 2003), the transferrin receptor (TfR) (Moura et al., 2004; Shinohara et al., 2000), BcR-Abl kinase (Druker et al., 2001) and c-Kit (Demetri et al., 2002). Inhibitors can be obtained from small chemical molecules derived from high throughput screening of large chemical libraries or alternatively from monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Of particular interest within the spectrum of tumor-specific and overexpressed molecules are those located at the cell surface, since they are readily accessible and can be used to target cancer cells with highly specific ligands like mAbs. Antibody phage display technology is a strategy that can be used to isolate tumor specific antibodies able to bind their cognate antigens in the cellular context for therapeutic uses (Hoogenboom, 2005; Nielsen and Marks, 2000). For antibody phage display, antibody fragments, corresponding to the binding site of an immunoglobulin (Ig) either in scFv or an antigen binding fragment (Fab) format are fused to the pIII minor capsid protein and displayed at the surface of filamentous phage M13 (Bradbury and Marks, 2004). Repertoires of antibody variable (V) domains can be generated (Marks et al., 1991) and used to construct large libraries of human scFv or Fab, which can than be used to generate panels of antibodies to virtually any antigen (Marks and Marks, 1996; Sheets et al., 1998). Direct selection of tumor specific antibodies from phage display human antibody libraries on tumor cells provides an approach for generating large panels of human antibodies that recognize tumor specific markers (Gao C, 2003; Geuijen et al., 2005; Heitner et al., 2001; Liu et al., 2004; Marks and Marks, 1996; Mazuet et al., 2006; Poul et al., 2000). Due to their human origin, antibodies isolated from phage display human antibody libraries can be directly used without the need to change them to reduce immunogenicity, as required for murine antibodies derived from hybridoma technology. Depending on the application, antibody fragments can also be engineered to yield antibodies with multiple binding sites (McCall et al., 1999), to improve avidity (Adams et al., Vildagliptin 2006) or to change pharmacokinetic properties (Adams et al., 1998). Antibody fragments can also be used to deliver other therapeutic molecules such as doxorubicin-containing liposomes, enzymes, or DNA, into the cytosol of cancer cells to achieve a therapeutic effect (Noble et al., 2004; Wu and Senter, 2005). For this work, we employed a previously described methodology (Becerril et al., 1999) to directly select phage antibodies binding a human breast (SK-BR-3) tumor cell line. The methodology generated a panel of phage-antibodies (Ph-Abs) that not only bind, but also are internalized into, the target SK-BR-3 cell line and other breast tumor cell lines. Characterization of Vildagliptin the resulting antibodies indicated that several bound the internalizing transferrin receptor. By developing a scFv immunoprecipitation method, we were able.