Leinco Technologies and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have agreed to scale up production of its most promising antibodies for development of a rapid, point of care COVID-19 diagnostic test.
Under the agreement, Leinco Technologies will co-develop a rapid, point of care, immunodiagnostic test for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19. This is the type of test that can be mass-produced for use on the front lines. The antibody sequences that will be used in the test were discovered in the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center (VVC).
“This is an academic and corporate partnership to get tens of millions of COVID-19 rapid, point of care diagnostic test kits into the market using these antibody sequences,” said Pat Leinert Sr., President and CEO of Leinco Technologies. Leinert further added, “It’s almost the perfect team to screen, develop and scale up manufacturing to provide our country with another badly needed weapon in the war against COVID-19. Leinco is in a unique position using its protein expression technology platform to rapidly scale up manufacturing of these antibodies from a DNA sequence to key components for a rapid, point of care COVID-19 diagnostic test kit. Finally, we will have a rapid point of care COVID-19 test kit that can be mass manufactured and sent to the front lines to track and trace this virus.
“We have been working non-stop since January to identify and characterize large panels of antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 virus. Obviously, one of the key utilities of these antibodies is for use in diagnostic screening. These type of screening approaches will be a critical piece of returning our society back to normalcy through tracking and understanding prior exposures to this specific virus,” said Robert Carnahan, PhD, Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center.