Antibodies have been in the news lately—but what are they, and how can we use them to fight the coronavirus?
What’s an antibody? In the simplest terms, it’s a blood protein produced by the immune system in response to a pathogen—such as the coronavirus.
And antibodies can remain in the body for a long time—in some cases forever—allowing doctors to take a blood sample and determine whether an individual has been exposed to (or is immune to) a particular pathogen—like a fingerprint left behind at a crime scene.
Many BIO members are researching how to use antibodies to treat COVID-19—from Amgen and Vir looking at antibodies to neutralize the virus, to SAB Biotherapeutics, which is using genetically engineered cows to produce human reagent antibodies to help diagnose and treat it.
More immediately,scientiststhink we can use antibody tests to determine who has been exposed to, or who is just immune to, the coronavirus—and allow those asymptomatic people to go back to work.
We talked about this on our podcast. In the latest episode of the I AM BIO podcast, The Antibody Test Shortage, BIO’s Jim Greenwood chatted with Jonathan Cohen, Founder, President, and CEO of 20/20 Gene Systems, which specializes in bio-testing.
The company is at the forefront of early detection and testing using biotech innovations and AI—with tests for lung cancer, suspicious powders, tumors, and now, the coronavirus.
CoronaCheck is a rapid, 15-minute test for COVID-19 antibodies in a blood sample to determine who has been exposed to the coronavirus and might be recovered or immune.
Listen to learn more about how antibody tests work, when they’ll be available, and how they can help us learn more about the virus. You can listen on our website or anywhere you get your podcast fix including Apple, Google, and Spotify.
For more on what BIO members are doing on coronavirus, visit www.bio.org/coronavirus.
More Health Care News:
Biopharma Dive: Inovio begins first human test of experimental coronavirus vaccine
“Inovio aims to recruit 40 people into its study and expects it could have initial immune response and safety data by late summer. Volunteers who enroll will receive two doses of Inovio's DNA-based vaccine, spaced one month apart.”
Bloomberg: Everything must go right for big pharma’s bet on a fast vaccine
“This may sound like mission impossible, but Big Pharma wouldn’t be working this hard if it didn’t think it had a shot at pulling it off.”
Reuters: Eli Lilly lowers insulin costs as coronavirus crisis deepens
“[I]t has capped the out-of-pocket cost for insulin to $35 per month to help diabetes patients across the United States.”
