Novel antibody tests reveal complexity of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2

Leveraging expertise developed from his extensive work with HIV, Jackson Laboratory (JAX) Professor Derya Unutmaz, M.D., led an effort to develop an assay that determines how well anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies are able to neutralize binding with ACE-2, the human receptor for the virus. Using a non-infectious pseudo-virus with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein on the external membrane, the assay does not require a BSL-3-level biosecurity facility, yet detects the presence of neutralizing antibodies with extremely high sensitivity and specificity. In a pre-print posted on medRxiv, Unutmaz shows that the assay is able to detect neutralizing antibody in patient plasma even at high dilutions, up to a million-fold. Read more