Jay Nix, leader of the Molecular Biology Consortium based at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), used beamlines at the ALS and beamlines at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource to perform X-ray crystallography on samples of survivor-derived antibodies during an early phase of the study. Sotrovimab, the newest antibody therapy, was developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology after a large collaborative study by scientists from across the nation discovered a natural antibody (in the blood of a COVID-19 survivor) that has remarkable breadth and efficacy.Įxperiments showed that this antibody, called S309, neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 strains – including newly emerged mutants that can now “escape” from previous antibody therapies – as well as the closely related original SARS-CoV virus. In the past year, there has been significant progress in developing effective antibody-based therapies, and three drugs are currently available through emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration. But vaccines are only one side of the coin – we also need treatments that can prevent severe disease after someone has been infected. Lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines are allowing us to feel optimistic again, after more than a year of anxiety and tragedy. Scientist at Berkeley Lab Played a Hand in “Inescapable” COVID-19 Antibody DiscoveryĪn antibody therapy that appears to neutralize all known SARS-CoV-2 strains, and other coronaviruses, was developed with a little help from structural biologist Jay Nix All rights reserved.Image: Berkeley Lab researchers Yuqiang Zhen (left) and Sean Lubner measure thermal characterization of batteries. In this review we will retrace the history of antibodies from the times of serum therapy to modern mAbs and lay out how the current run for effective treatments against COVID-19 will lead to a quantum leap in scientific, technological and health care system innovation around mAb treatments for infectious diseases.ĬOVID-19 Innovation Monoclonal antibody mAb serum therapy.Ĭopyright © 2020 The Authors. This trend is further accelerated by ongoing or imminent health crises like COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), where antibodies could be the last resort. MAbs against devastating diseases like Ebola, HIV and other complex pathogens are now within reach. Vast advances in mAb isolation, engineering and production have entirely shifted the cost-efficacy balance. The development of urgently needed and highly effective mAbs as preventive and therapeutic treatments against a variety of pathogens is gaining traction. Only very few mAbs against RSV, anthrax, Clostridium difficile or rabies have reached the market. For years the high production cost and limited efficacy have blocked broader application of mAbs in the infectious disease space, which instead has been dominated for almost a century by effective and cheap antibiotics and vaccines. Instead, development of effective mAbs against infectious diseases has been lagging behind. This success is mainly driven by treatments in the oncology and autoimmune space. In recent years the global market for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) became a multi-billion-dollar business.
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