A method of identifying at least one consensus sequence for an
intracellular antibody (ICS) comprising the steps of: creating a database
comprising sequences of validated intracellular antibodies (VIDA
database) and aligning the sequences of validated intracellular
antibodies according to Kabat; determining the frequency with which a
particular amino acid occurs in each of the positions of the aligned
antibodies; selecting a frequency threshold value (LP or consensus
threshold) in the range from 70% to 100%; identifying the positions of
the alignment at which the frequency of a particular amino acid is
greater than or equal to the LP value; and identifying the most frequent
amino acid, in the position of said alignment.