Twist has also found antibody candidates that bind with high affinity to the human ACE2 cellular receptor, the binding site of SARS-CoV-2 in the human body.
The rapid emergence of a global pandemic requires agile countermeasures bringing together the best science to defeat COVID-19, and we deployed our biopharma activities to meet this challenge,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “By leveraging our unique capability to precisely write DNA along with our fully human antibody libraries derived from natural human antibodies, we found leads against antigens involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection. We generated highly potent and functional monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19 in a matter of just six weeks.”
In March, as the global pandemic was gaining traction rapidly, Twist Biopharma, a division of Twist Bioscience, leveraged its robust proprietary synthetic antibody discovery libraries each containing more than 10 billion antibody sequences. The results of several rounds of screening and optimization identified key competitive antibodies with potent biological activity that bind to the receptor binding domain of the S1 protein of SARS-CoV-2 and separately, a series of antibodies that binds to the extracellular domain (ECD) of ACE2 in human cells.
“For next steps, we expect to refine and optimize our antibody leads, and scale up those compounds for in vitro functional testing,” commented Aaron Sato, Ph.D., CSO of Twist Biopharma. “We look forward to advancing these candidates into preclinical development and identifying a partner for further studies. We intend to use every tool at our disposal to fight this pandemic.”
Source: Company Press Release