Alison Burns

TL;DR: A role for potent neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) in prophylaxis, and potentially therapy, of COVID-19 is suggested, as indicated by maintained weight and low lung viral titers in treated animals, and the passive transfer of a nAb provides protection against disease in high-dose SARS-CoV-2 challenge in Syrian hamsters.

TL;DR: The study suggests a role for nAbs in prophylaxis, and potentially therapy, of COVID-19 and shows that passive transfer of a nAb provides protection against high-dose SARS-CoV-2 challenge in Syrian hamsters.

TL;DR: It is shown that all of the nAbs bind in close proximity to known bnAb epitopes and might therefore sterically hinder elicitation of bnAbs, and identifies a “public clonotype” that targets the immunodominant C3/V5 nAb epitope, which suggests that common antibody rearrangements might help determine humoral responses to Env immunogens.

TL;DR: Using samples from participants in a placebo‐controlled RCT aiming to determine whether BCG vaccination reduces the incidence and severity of COVID‐19, this work investigated the immunomodulatory effects of BCG on in vitro immune responses to SARS‐CoV‐2.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors demonstrate that engineering approaches can be used to refocus an existing neutralizing antibody to a related but resistant virus using a rapid affinity maturation strategy, and they engineered CR3022, a SARS-CoV-1 neutralising antibody, to bind SARS CoV-2 receptor binding domain with >1000-fold improved affinity.