Uwe K K Hilgert

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• Hilgert, U. K., Sandra, P., Erica, L., & Stieber, M. (2022. Evaluating the potential for immune escape: how likely is an antibody to protect against a specific SARS-CoV-2 variant?. QUBES Educational Resources.
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  Commercial antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein have been successfully used to treat people with COVID-19. Unfortunately, as the SARS-CoV-2 virus evolves, new variants have appeared that can escape some of these antibodies. In fact, many commercial antibodies that received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA had their status rescinded because they fail to work against newer variants. This project gives students the opportunity to investigate how well different commercial antibodies might work against SARS-CoV-2 variants. In the main research component, students use NextStrain.org to locate emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 and find the sequences of their spike proteins in GenBank. They use iCn3D and BLAST to align the sequence of the variant spike protein to a sequence of a spike protein that is bound to a commercial antibody. They annotate and identify mutations in the antibody binding site of the variant spike protein. Last, they compare the chemical bonds that would be formed between the original amino acid and the antibody with the predicted bonds that could be formed by the variant amino acid and predict whether their antibody will be effective against their variant.