Technical Articles

The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) tetramer technology, pioneered by John Altman and Mark Davis in the late 1990s, is a revolutionary tool in immunology. It utilizes biotinylated MHC-peptide monomers bound to fluorescently labeled streptavidin to form a multivalent complex, dramatically enhancing TCR binding affinity. This enables precise flow cytometry-based detection and sorting of antigen-specific T cells, greatly advancing cellular immunology research.