A team of Scientists from DBT-THSTI’s Infection and Immunity Program, led by Dr. Rajesh Kumar, developed the human monoclonal antibody (mAb) against the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV2. The mAb has been shown to bind to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) protein of SARS-CoV2 with high affinity and specificity. The RBD of the spike protein of SARS-CoV2 is the primary target for neutralizing antibodies to block infection. The team hopes this ‘in-house’ mAb facilitates COVID-19 research activities across the country. The team has developed different formats of this mAb - scFv, scFv-Fc, and IgG1 against COVID-19. This well-established platform allows isolating neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19, which might be helpful to use as an alternate therapeutic.

Furthermore, the availability of an extensive array of SARS-CoV2 specific monoclonal antibodies can help to design vaccines through structural vaccinology. This part of the research work has been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for consideration. The research is funded by DBT.

The other co-investigators in the project are Drs. Shubbir Ahmad, Sweety Samal, Tripti Shrivastava, Hilal Ahmad, Shailendra Asthana, Chandresh Sharma, Shailendra Mani, and Adrash Chiranjivi.