As the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 continues to evolve, immunologists and infectious diseases experts are eager to know whether new variants are resistant to the human antibodies that recognized initial versions ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 23, 2021
1
595
Scientists have developed a "nanobody"—a small fragment of a llama antibody—that is capable of chasing out human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) as it hides away from the immune system. This then enables immune cells to seek out ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 22, 2021
0
48
When harmful bacteria or viruses enter the body, immune cells spot telltale proteins known as antigens on the invaders' surfaces and send out armies of antibodies to fend them off. If some of those antibodies have just the ...
Biochemistry
Jun 28, 2021
0
34
Scientists from within the Antibody and Vaccine Group at the University of Southampton have gained novel insights into how an important class of immune receptors called tumor necrosis factor receptors (TNFR) are activated.
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 25, 2021
0
15
Scientists are pursuing a new strategy in the protracted fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus by engineering nanobodies that can neutralize virus variants in two different ways.
Bio & Medicine
Jun 22, 2021
0
12
The swift development of vaccines has provided a vital tool to combat the spread of the deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus, but challenges to reaching herd immunity posed by the rise of new mutations and the inability of immunosuppressed ...
Biochemistry
May 24, 2021
0
16
SARS-CoV-2 has evolved to acquire mutations on the spike protein—the part of the virus that protrudes from its surface and latches onto cells to infect them—that enhance the coronavirus' ability to bind to human cells ...
Biotechnology
May 19, 2021
0
126
Perfectly controlled protein scissors at the molecular level reveal the binding sites of antibodies, and enable the bottom-up design of new monoclonal antibodies aimed at medically important target proteins.
Cell & Microbiology
May 5, 2021
0
94
It has been known for about a year that minks can become infected with SARS-CoV-2. The virus had been transmitted from humans to farmed mink and mutated in infected animals. Mutations were acquired in the spike protein, which ...
Ecology
Apr 19, 2021
1
394
In the course of a new and groundbreaking study, led by Dr. Natalia Freund and the doctoral candidate Avia Watson at the Sackler Medical Faculty, the research group succeeded in isolating monoclonal antibodies, which hindered ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 22, 2021
0
43
