Publications by authors named "Andrea Musa"

TruAB Discovery is an approach that integrates cellular immunology, high-throughput immunosequencing, bioinformatics, and computational biology in order to discover naturally occurring human antibodies for prophylactic or therapeutic use. We adapted our previously described pairSEQ technology to pair B cell receptor heavy and light chains of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-binding antibodies derived from enriched antigen-specific memory B cells and bulk antibody-secreting cells. We identified approximately 60,000 productive, in-frame, paired antibody sequences, from which 2,093 antibodies were selected for functional evaluation based on abundance, isotype and patterns of somatic hypermutation.

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The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant of concern (VoC) and its sublineages contain 31-36 mutations in spike and escape neutralization by most therapeutic antibodies. In a pseudovirus neutralization assay, 66 of the nearly 400 candidate therapeutics in the Coronavirus Immunotherapeutic Consortium (CoVIC) panel neutralize Omicron and multiple Omicron sublineages. Among natural immunoglobulin Gs (IgGs), especially those in the receptor-binding domain (RBD)-2 epitope community, nearly all Omicron neutralizers recognize spike bivalently, with both antigen-binding fragments (Fabs) simultaneously engaging adjacent RBDs on the same spike.

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