Human mAb therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 have nearly all been rendered obsolete by variants that evolved to resist similar, naturally occurring antibodies. In a new preprint we (with @theodora_nyc) took a different approach to mAb prophylaxis/therapy
biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… Using AlivaMab mice, we generated Human mAbs against ACE2 rather than spike. These mAbs block infection by all ACE2 binding sarbecoviruses, including emergent SARS-CoV-2 variants, with potency approaching the best anti-spike mAbs, but much greater breadth

Our latest preprint with @theodora_nyc and @NussenzweigL Led by Leander Witte, Viren Bahrani and Fabian Schmidt, with lots of help from @VinciZijun and others including @c_gaebler and @marinacaskey1
on antibody escape by recent SARS-CoV-2 variants

biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… Previously, we found that maturation of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies gives breadth -the ability to neutralize variants e.g BA.1 and BA.2. A corollary, is broad antibodies are 'resilient’ - ancestral SARS-CoV-2 cannot escape by single mutations –multiple substitutions requiredto escape

A central, and perhaps the most avoided question is:

How many COVID deaths, (mostly of old people) is a price worth paying for a return to normality? Noting however, that those who return to normality will have answered on behalf of others, who will actually pay the price

Not the first, but a quite comprehensive analyses of Omicron neutralization resistance with @theodora_nyc, @NussenzweigL
Bottom line is fairly consistent with other mini-studies out this week, some quantitative discrepancies between groups By Fabian Schmidt, @FraukeMuecksch, Yiska Weisblum, Justin Da Silva, Eva Bednarski, Alice Cho @VinciZijun, @c_gaebler @marinacaskey
Link to full manuscript: drive.google.com/file/d/1zjJWsy…

Our paper on #polymutant SARS-CoV-2 spikes (led by Fabian Schmidt and Yiska Weisblum with @theodora_nyc and @NussenzweigL) now published in @Nature
nature.com/articles/s4158…
rdcu.be/cx5qM It shows that plasma antibodies target numerous epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 spike such that ~TWENTY mutations are needed for neutralization escape from polyclonal antibodies elicited by infection or vaccination.

Our new preprint with @NussenzweigL @theodora_nyc and @bjorkmanlab

K417N, E484K and N501Y in SARS-CoV-2 “variants of concern” in UK, SA and Brazil are antibody escape mutations.
biorxiv.org/content/10.110… Each confers resistance to commonly elicited RBD neutralizing antibodies cloned from mRNA vaccinees
Together, K417N, E484K and N501Y confer some (not complete) resistance to neutralization by vaccine recipient polyclonal plasma.