HYDERABAD: The University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have teamed with a startup incubated at the UoH, namely Vins Bioproducts Ltd, in a collaborative project to develop antibody fragment-based therapy against Covid-19.
They plan to use antibody fragments, synthesised from the antibodies generated in horses, offered by the F(ab’)2 platform technology.
Horse-based antibodies have been used earlier for developing antibody therapy for a variety of life-threatening pathologies in humans as anti-venoms, anti-toxins and anti-virals.
The antibodies, raised in horses using inactivated Coronavirus is fractionated and purified to produce antibody fragments F(ab’)2 for neutralising Coronavirus in the patients for recovery.
While the UoH team is headed by Dr Nooruddin Khan, Associate Professor at the Department of Animal Biology, the team at CCMB is headed by Dr Krishnan Harinivas, a principal scientist.