Preclinical development of a bispecific human-derived SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing monoclonal antibody (PREHUMAB)
Project leader: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kalinke
Key area
- Antiviral strategies: agents and vaccines, antibodies
Who is involved?
- Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kalinke (Project leader, TWINCORE)
- Prof. Dr. Axel Schambach (MHH)
- Prof. Dr. Stefan Pöhlmann (DPZ)
What is the aim?
The COVID-19 pandemic continues still brings many challenges worldwide – one of these is the persistent lack of effective antiviral drugs, whereas the development of new COVID-19 vaccines was achieved within less than a year. We have identified and generated highly potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralising monoclonal antibodies from convalescent COVID-19 patients. In a next step, modified formats of these antibodies will be expressed. On the one hand, the objective is to minimise viral escape and on the other hand, the antibodies will be expressed in vivo in the lung epithelium. The therapeutic effect of the application approaches will be evaluated in different infection models in order to meet the preclinical requirements for a clinical phase I trial of the most promising antibodies.