{"id":39245,"date":"2020-06-03T11:07:05","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T15:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=39245"},"modified":"2020-06-03T11:07:05","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T15:07:05","slug":"large-scale-antibody-screening-device-in-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=39245","title":{"rendered":"Large-Scale Antibody Screening Device in Development"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SARS-Cov-2<\/a>
Scanning electron microscope image of SARS-Cov-2 virus, responsible for Covid-19 infections (NIH.gov)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3 June 2020. A system to quickly screen for human antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2 or other infectious viruses is being developed at Texas A&M University. The one-year project is a joint undertaking of the university’s medical and engineering colleges, and funded by $200,000 award from National Science Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The system called Prescient — short for Platform for the Rapid Evaluation of antibody SucCess using Integrated microfluidics ENabled Technology — aims to quickly identify neutralizing antibodies in blood samples that prevent the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus from causing Covid-19 infections. The technology can also be adapted to find antibodies active against other disease-causing viruses. Current antibody screening devices, say the Texas A&M researchers, can test only small parts of the antibody population at any time, making the process expensive as well as time and labor intensive.<\/p>\n

Prescient is led by microbiologist Paul de Figueiredo<\/a> and biomedical engineering professor Arum Han<\/a>, with other medical and veterinary school faculty. The team plans to build a microfluidics, or lab-on-a-chip platform that can analyze individual B-cells in the immune system for neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. B-cells<\/a> are white blood cells in the immune system that produce antibodies.<\/p>\n

Prescient is designed to screen serum from blood samples and test individual B-cells for chemical reactions against antigens indicating the presence of neutralizing antibodies, in this case for SARS-CoV-2. The system will specifically target surface proteins on the virus’s spike<\/a>, the part of the virus that penetrates cells and causes infections, testing B-cells for their ability to neutralize spike protein in minute quantities in tiny bioreactors.<\/p>\n

As Han describes in a university statement<\/a>, the device “utilizes droplet microfluidics technology, where millions of such pico-liter-volume bioreactors, each containing unique antibody-producing cells, are generated and each of the cells in the pico-liter bioreactors are tested one at a time to assess whether they produce antibodies that can prevent infection.”<\/p>\n

The researchers expect to build a working high-speed Prescient system that processes and reports hundreds of these tests per second, with fluorescent indicators and digital read-outs. The team plans to demonstrate the system with blood serum from lab mice inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 antigens.<\/p>\n

The researchers say they already built a working prototype with hepatitis viruses, a different family of coronavirus, showing the system can detect neutralizing antibodies against the target viruses in the minute pico-liter volumes planned for the SARS-CoV-2 system. And the team submitted its findings to the journal Lab on a Chip<\/a><\/em> for publication in an upcoming issue.<\/p>\n

National Science Foundation awarded the funds under its\u00a0Rapid Response Research<\/a>\u00a0program that provides up to $200,000 for projects of up to one year to support technologies for fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

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