Using Antibody Technology to Decipher and Exploit the Immunological Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Peter Quashie of the University of Ghana, West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens in Ghana will determine the impact of SARS-CoV-2 viral variants and their susceptibility to neutralization by vaccine-induced and naturally-acquired immunity to better manage pandemic control in Ghana. They will evaluate over 600 existing plasma samples taken at multiple timepoints from both vaccinated and unvaccinated COVID-19 patients with associated SARS-CoV-2 sequencing data to identify the viral variants, and additional samples as new variants emerge. They will use ELISA and Luminex assays to screen these samples for anti-viral antibodies. Positive samples will then be used in neutralization assays to measure their ability to protect against different viral variants. Plasma with strong broad or selective neutralization activity will be processed for single cell sequencing to identify monoclonal antibodies for potential therapeutic use. Their pipeline can also be applied to other viral outbreaks such as HIV or Ebola.