Disclosed herein is a method for obtaining
antibody-producing cells that express
antibody molecules exhibiting high binding affinity to an
antigen, comprising: contacting a
population of
antibody-producing cells, including cells expressing antibody molecules against an
antigen on their
cell surface, with a first labeled form of the
antigen to enable the antigen to bind to antibody molecules on the
cell surface; subsequently contacting the cells with (i) an unlabeled form of the antigen, (ii) a second labeled form of the antigen, or (iii) both the unlabeled and second labeled forms of the antigen; and collecting cells that remain bound to the first labeled form of the antigen, thereby obtaining cells that express antibody molecules with high affinity to the antigen. This method makes it possible to obtain cells expressing high-affinity antibody molecules from a
pool of antibody-producing cells expressing antibody molecules with different affinities.