I began by optimizing the antigens (the “bait” used for the Beacon instrument to find antibodies of interest) and finalizing which immune cell samples we will be using on the Beacon. Over the last four months, I have made 15 antigens for use on the Beacon, which will give me the best chance of finding one or more pan-filovirus antibodies. These antigens are the sole protein on the surface of these viruses and the main therapeutic target. I also added on additional biochemical tags to make the proteins work using the Beacon infrastructure. 

I then completed neutralization and antibody studies on samples from all study participants. This gave me a better idea of which individuals are most promising, and I have found multiple individuals that potently neutralize the multiple species of orthoebolaviruses and orthomarburgviruses. It is exciting to see that these individuals not only have antibodies that bind to these viruses, but also functionally stop these viruses from being able to infect cells. This foundational work is vital for the success of the project and will allow for subsequent isolation of individual antibody-producing cells using the Beacon instrument. This work is ongoing and will lead to the discovery of the desired antibodies that could ultimately drive therapeutic development. 

I went on to sequence the isolated antibodies, and I used those sequences to produce the antibodies recombinantly. These antibodies will allow me to move forward and conduct the downstream antibody characterization and structure analysis.