From La Jolla Institute for Immunology: 

New research published in Science magazine will guide the development of more effective COVID-19 antibody therapies and help scientists develop effective vaccines to address emerging viral variants.

​“We were able to map the geography of Spike and understand which antibodies bind to which footprints. This map provides a reference to help predict  which antibodies are still effective against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern like the currently surging Delta variant,” says LJI Professor Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., who leads the global effort behind this research, called the Coronavirus Immunotherapeutic Consortium (CoVIC).

CoVIC is a global, academic-industry, non-profit research collaboration that brings together scientists from around the world to understand which antibodies are most effective against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, and to streamline and accelerate the research pipeline for antibody-based therapeutics needed against SARS-CoV-2. GHR joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in supporting the global partnership, headquartered at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI). ​

Learn more here. 

UPDATE 09/17/20: On August 20th, Dr. Saphire's  presented GHR-sponsored work to the Neutralizing Antibody Summit held by Operation Warp Speed. Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, and all of Operation Warp Speed and NIH are now relying on the data by the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.

GHR is honored to provide $1 million in support of the Coronavirus Immunotherapy Consortium (CoVIC), a global partnership headquartered at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI). Led by Dr. Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., a professor in LJI’s Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, CoVIC aims to accelerate the discovery, optimization, and delivery of life-saving antibody-based therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. 

“As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown clearly, infectious disease anywhere becomes infectious disease everywhere. Until a vaccine becomes available, we need a way of giving people immediate immunity,” says Dr. Saphire, “and antibody therapy is the way to do it. The support of GHR will help us expand and accelerate the analysis of antibodies from people who have recovered from COVID-19, to understand how they work and deliver the best ones across the globe.”