PR83431

EMERYVILLE, California, March 26, 2020 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

-- In collaboration with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, La Jolla Institute for

Immunology and Emory University, viral neutralization workflows on the Berkeley Lights

platform are under accelerated development in response to the Coronavirus outbreak

Today Berkeley Lights, Inc., announced the Global Emerging Pathogen Antibody

Discovery Consortium (GEPAD) with founding members Dr. James Crowe and

Dr. Robert Carnahan at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Dr. Erica Ollman

Saphire at La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Dr. Frances Eun-Hyung Lee at

Emory University with the aim to accelerate the discovery of neutralizing antibodies

from patient blood samples. Processing precious blood samples and fragile cells can be

challenging with traditional technologies. The consortium will leverage Berkeley Lights'

Beacon platform for antibody discovery using the blood of recovering patients as

the foundation for therapeutics, with COVID-19 as a first target.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1078159/Berkeley_Lights_Logo.jpg

While researchers around the world are quickly characterizing the SARS-CoV-2

virus, the ability to screen single B cells expressing a SARS-CoV-2

neutralizing antibody remains a significant and time-consuming challenge. The

body has billions of B cells. After a patient recovers from SAR-CoV-2, they

generate many B cells specific for the virus; however, some B cells will make

antibodies that just bind to the virus but are not protective. Hence, finding

the special B cells that eliminate or neutralize the virus is exceedingly rare.

It is like finding a "needle in a haystack". The existing technologies can only

search for binders, not neutralizers – so researchers are forced to sequence

and re-express the antibody from non-specific B cells wasting significant time

and resources. The Beacon system and the viral neutralization assay is

designed to address this problem by directly screening single cells for

neutralizing function in a single day.

The primary goal of the GEPAD Consortium is to enable the quickest therapeutic

response to emerging pathogens. The GEPAD Consortium is requesting that anyone

interested in this viral neutralization workflow and advancing the state of the

art reach out and join them in forming a defensive barrier worldwide against

diseases caused by emerging pathogens. Members will be enabled to rapidly

discover potential treatments using small volume blood samples from recovering

patients—both acute and convalescent. The consortium is rapidly iterating and

improving the viral neutralization workflow executing on the Berkeley Lights

platform and hopes that more collaborators will come forward to participate in

fighting this epidemic and be better prepared for the next one.

"We have long sought to study the antiviral capacity of antibodies secreted by

single human B cells, but the instruments and protocols for doing those studies

didn't exist. Partnering with Berkeley Lights on developing innovative

approaches to this single-cell biology task is now becoming a reality," said

Dr. James Crowe, MD, Director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center.

"We have developed a specialized survival media for plasma cells and envision

the use of it for rapid upfront selection of a rare target monoclonal antibody," said Dr. Lee. "Berkeley Lights together with this consortium will make this method a reality for COVID-19

neutralizing antibodies. We hope this helps in this pandemic to save lives."

"There's an opportunity here to quickly mobilize something that could protect

frontline workers or treat those who have been infected," explained Dr.

Saphire. "Vaccines aren't available yet. Providing some immediate immunity

using antibodies could be lifesaving for those who haven't been vaccinated or

can't be vaccinated, or if the eventual vaccines aren't completely protective."

"COVID-19 is a serious threat to our health, our way of life, and the world

economy," said Dr. Eric Hobbs, CEO of Berkeley Lights. "We are committed to

doing our part by developing assays and workflows that researchers and therapeutic

developers can use to rapidly discover antibodies that are key to treatments."

About Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is one of the nation's largest

academic medical centers. As part of its research enterprise, in partnership

with the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the Vanderbilt Vaccine

Center is participating in the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's

(DARPA's) Pandemic Protection Platform (P3) program, a five-year cooperative

agreement to develop protective antibody treatments that can be rushed to

health care providers within 60 days after the outbreak of viral diseases

anywhere in the world.

About La Jolla Institute for Immunology

La Jolla Institute for Immunology is dedicated to understanding the intricacies

and power of the immune system so that we may apply that knowledge to promote

human health and prevent a wide range of diseases. Since its founding in 1988

as an independent, nonprofit research organization, the Institute has made

numerous advances leading towards its goal: life without disease(R).

About Emory University

Emory University is one of the world's leading research universities. Its mission is to create,

preserve, teach and apply knowledge in the service of humanity. The Emory effort is led by

Dr. Lee of the Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Division, The Lowance Center for

Human Immunology and the Emory Vaccine Center. She contributes culture methods

developed in her lab that greatly improve the survival of B cells and plasma cells thereby

facilitating the isolation of extremely rare cells producing the antibodies of interest.

Dr. Lee's work is supported by NIH, the Lowance Center, Gates Foundation,

and the Georgia Research Alliance.

About Berkeley Lights

Here at Berkeley Lights, we think cells are awesome! Cells are capable of

manufacturing cures for diseases, fibers for clothing, energy in the form of

biofuels, and food proteins for nutrition. So the question is, if nature is

capable of manufacturing the products we need in a scalable way, why aren't we

doing more of this? Well, the answer is that with the solutions available

today, it is hard. It takes a long time to find the right cell for a specific

job, costs lots of money, and if you have picked a suboptimal cell line, has a

very low process yield. Berkeley Lights has the complete solution to find the

best cells by functionally screening and recovering individual cells for

antibody discovery, cell line development, T cell analysis, and synthetic biology.

Our proprietary technology, including the Beacon(R) and Lightning(TM) platforms

accelerate the rate you can discover and develop cell-based products in a fraction

of the time and at a fraction of the cost of conventional, legacy research methods.

Using our tools and solutions, scientists can find the best cells, the first time they look.

For more information, visit www.berkeleylights.com.

Berkeley Lights' Beacon and Lightning systems and Culture Station instrument are:

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

Source - Berkeley Lights

CONTACT: berkeleylights@bulleitgroup.com OR For inquiries regarding the GEPAD

Consortium, please reach out to blicommunications@berkeleylights.com