Taiwan’s Academica Sinica announced last March 8 that a team of its scientists has developed antibodies for the rapid testing of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Source: Spry Living
The antibodies are able to identify the protein which causes the virus and may be used in creating a new test that could detect COVID-19 in just 15 minutes. Dr. Yang An-suei and his team at the Genomics Research Center took only 19 days to develop said antibodies.
Yang explained that they were able to successfully test and generate the first monoclonal antibodies to bind the nucleocapsid protein (N protein). If these antibodies are successfully manufactured and validated then they could be used to test for COVID-19 in as short as 15 minutes, similar to rapid influenza tests.
He clarified that these antibodies do not bind to the N proteins of the other fives strains of coronavirus, avoiding the problem of cross-reactivity.
Yang’s team is now working with Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs on the development and production of prototypes. They will be working on product validation and certification with the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration before coordinating with the Ministry of Health and Welfare on distribution.
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