New antibody reagents for Covid Rapid nucleocapsid antigen lateral flow tests

Industry access to UK Academic output for novel antibody pairs to build next generation of tests

In December 2020, a call out was made to UK Academic Institutions advising that a consortium of UK lateral flow providers, contract research and manufacturing partners is collaborating to deliver a high capacity pipeline of novel lateral flow tests for SARS-2 COVID-19 infectiousness (antigen tests) which may be used during the current pandemic. This second call is for partners to provide more materials for evaluation but specifically for Nucleocapsid protein detection.

The consortium, working with government, is calling to academia and industry for novel reagents which are available now and could form the basis for next generation industrial tests.  The consortium seeks novel, high affinity molecule pairs made up; primary monoclonal viral epitope recognition antibodies, affimers, carbohydrates or others to nucleocapsid epitopes and also paired capture antibodies for the primary.

The desired primary reagent will have an Kd of <100pM. Ideally proposed antibody pairs would also have associated kinetic data derived using solid state techniques such as Biocore or surface plasmon residence (SPR). However affinity data derived from ELISA techniques are acceptable.

Upon receipt of initial interest within 5 working days, the consortium will provide a simple questionnaire. It will use the content of this in February and early March to request reagents for structured industrial evaluation. The transfer will occur under an *MTA, with evaluation data shared back to suppliers.

The evaluation will be performed  using industry standard, functional lateral flow environments. Suitable reagent pairs and any available biologicals needed for their production may then be licensed by interested industrial parties or government in return for royalty payments, and form part of next generation tests.

In the first instance could you send your expressions of interest to David Simson ([email protected])

*A Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) is a contract governing the transfer of materials between two parties. It defines the rights of the provider and the recipient with respect to the materials and any derivatives. MTAs can help to ensure a common understanding as to what is being shared, for what purpose, and how it can be used. MTAs regularly govern the transfer of biological materials, such as samples but can also cover associated data, such as meta data or the clinical state of the donor.