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If you, or your older relatives, are being treated for some chronic condition by the regular subcutaneous (SC) or intravenous (IV) inoculation of a ‘drug’ – or ‘biological’ – with ‘mab’ at the end of the proprietary name, the ‘therapeutic’ in question is a monoclonal antibody. Being able to make human mAbs at will – using approaches like phage display (#75) to find the key immunoglobulin genes (Ig) – has revolutionised many areas of medicine. The first medically important ‘phage display’ mAb was Adalumimab, which is also called Humira, so not all these ‘therapeutics’ have that mab ending. Well known in that category is Herceptin (also called Trastuzumab), which targets the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2) molecule that can be over-expressed on the surface of breast, and some other, cancer cells.