Hypothesis: Antibodies can be used to follow the progress of viral infection and the development and quality of immunity. The presence and relative abundance of the antibodies IgG and IgM can show whether an individual has been infected recently or at some point in the past. Among the IgG antibodies there may be neutralizing antibodies which can prevent the virus from entering cells and replicating. Commercially available antibody tests do not distinguish between neutralizing and non-neutralizing antibodies. This is a significant gap for several reasons: their detection in convalescent sera from health workers would allow decisions on the return of such staff to the front line; they can be harnessed as therapeutic treatment during future waves of the pandemic and most importantly, they will be the focus of vaccine studies. 

We propose to develop two types of neutralizing antibody assays – One based on pseudovirions (PVs) and another based on live virus.