Human antibodies to SARS-CoV2 for the prophylaxis and therapy of COVID-19 (CoVER-Ab)

Given the urgent need for prophylaxis and therapy of severe CoVID-19 the project aims to rapidly identify neutralizing human antibodies (nAb) against SARS-CoV2. Antibodies will be derived from immunoglobulin heavy and light chain pairs of plasmablasts of reconvalescent CoVID-19 patients and from immunized mice, that are transgenic for the human immunoglobulin repertoire. Antibodies will be screened for binding to the S protein of SARS-CoV2 and selected based on their efficacy in SARS-CoV2 neutralization assays. Selected nAbs will be tested for efficacy and potential disease enhancement in a mouse model for pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis and in a pre-exposure non-human primate model. Partnerships for parallel clinical development will be formed as soon as the first nAb has been identified.