As states in the U.S. move past the initial push for tests to identify active COVID-19 infections, antibody tests are ramping up quickly to aid in disease surveillance and return-to-work screenings. The rush has spurred an explosion in serology tests, many hastily developed and of questionable value. However, as the pandemic enters its third month, some companies are offering high-accuracy tests with validated results.
San Diego-based Abreos Biosciences Inc. is looking to create a multiplex test that goes beyond the simple yes/no COVID-19 antibody results and measures the “specific flavors” of antibodies to provide a more complete picture of the antibodies in a person’s blood.
“What we do is make peptides that are what technically we call antigen mimetics. So we’re able to identify peptides that copy the biochemical shape of the target of the antibodies, in this case the virus, but on a much smaller scale than is typically done,” Bradley Messmer, Abreos’ CEO, told BioWorld. “And we go in and really home in on the precise epitope … that each antibody is sticking, and then we make a biochemical copy of that that can be used to detect those antibodies.”