Does hybridoma technology still have a place in transfusion medicine?

Hybridoma technology has contributed to virtually all areas of biology and medicine and set the scene for important advances in cell biology and immunodiagnostics. Blood transfusion and transfusion medicine have benefited significantly from development in hybridoma technology, and this has resulted in the generation of a wide range of monoclonal antibodies to human blood group antigens. These antibodies have also had an impact on diagnostic techniques such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and flow cytometry as well as on the application of therapeutic agents in the clinical environment. However, rapid advances in the development of knockout and transgenic mice as well as in nucleic acid-based immunization may well lead hybridoma technology into a new era. Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.