Development of technologies for evaluation of antibody response following Coronavirus Infection vs Vaccination to identify immune correlates of protection

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The emergence of the Wuhan new coronavirus (nCoV) initiated efforts to rapidly develop effective medical countermeasures including vaccines and therapeutics against this severe disease. However, there is limited knowledge on polyclonal antibody responses generated following vaccination or nCoV infection in animals or humans. It is important to identify and understand immune markers that are reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit and that can facilitate evaluation of vaccine and therapeutic candidates, including: I. Do different vaccine platforms elicit similar or different antibody epitope repertoires, antibody isotypes, antibody affinity and durability in human’s vs animals? II. What are the correlates of protection against nCoV: Total antibody binding to specific antigenic regions within spike protein? antibody affinity? antibody isotype? antibody epitope diversity? III. Is the quantity, quality (epitopes and affinity) and durability of antibodies generated by nCoV- vaccination is similar or different than those of antibodies found in post-infection (in acute and convalescent) sera? To address these gaps, we will develop advanced technologies, including whole genome phage display library (GFPDL) and SPR for the new Coronavirus (nCoV) for in-depth analysis of immune responses following vaccination and nCoV infection in animal models or humans.