About PLAbDab-nano

The Patent and Literature Nanobody Database (PLAbDab-nano) is a self-updating repository containing just under 5000 VHH, VNAR and single-domain antibody sequences derived from patents and academic papers. Each entry contains a link to its primary literature source, where additional information about its functional characteristics can often be found.

PLAbDab-nano has many potential uses including (a) analysing structural models of existing nanobodies to identify modifications that could improve their properties, (b) designing diverse libraries of nanobodies, and (c) annotating query nanobody sequences with antigen information from similar entries.

You can search PLAbDab-nano by keyword, sequence, or structure relative to a query nanobody. Precomputed NanoBodyBuilder2 models of each VHH entry in the database facilitate rapid structural searches.

PLAbDab-nano was built by the Oxford Protein Informatics Group (OPIG) under an open-innovation agreement.

For any queries, or to report an issue with this web application, please, email us at "opig[~at~]stats.ox.ac.uk"


>   Downloads
All sequences (.csv.gz)
VHH sequences (.csv.gz)
VNAR sequences (.csv.gz)

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>   Search Database by Keyword

PLAbDab-nano can be searched using a keyword or regular expression for keywords contained in the title of the source literature.

If searching for a specific antigen target name, not every synonym will be captured. You can use a regular expression to extend your search coverage, e.g., SARS-CoV-2|COVID-19

Keyword or regex:

>   Search Database by VHH Sequence

Please enter a VHH sequence to find entries with the highest sequence identity in PLAbDab-nano.

VHH sequence:
VHH region to search:
Matched length search:
Sequence identity cutoff (%):

Maximum number of sequences to return:

>   Search Database by VNAR Sequence

Please enter a VNAR sequence to find entries with the highest sequence identity in PLAbDab-nano.

VNAR sequence:
VNAR region to search:
Matched length search:
Sequence identity cutoff (%):

Maximum number of sequences to return:

>   Search Database by VHH Structure

Please enter a VHH sequence to find entries with the most similar CDR structure in PLAbDab-nano.

If a sequence identity cutoff is specified, only results with a CDR sequence identity above this cutoff will be returned.

VHH sequence:
RMSD cutoff (Å):

CDR region sequence identity cutoff (%):

Maximum number of sequences to return:

Gordon et al. “The Patent and Literature Nanobody Database (PLAbDab-nano):
PLAbDab-nano: a database of camelid and shark nanobodies from patents and literature [ link]

Header image credit: David Goodsell