Are antibody cocktails the key to COVID-19 treatment?
Thought LeadersDr. Natalia FreundAssistant Professor, Sackler School of MedicineTel Aviv University
In this interview, News-Medical speaks to Dr. Natalia Freund about her latest research into COVID-19, and how most people are capable of producing neutralizing antibodies against the virus.
What provoked your research into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic?
When the pandemic hit Israel, every aspect of our lives has changed, and therefore like many other laboratories we had to put on hold some ongoing projects and focus on the new virus.
In fact, we have been developing tools and platforms for antibody discovery and isolation for a very long time, while focusing on other infectious diseases such as HIV-1 and Tuberculosis, and we were as prepared as one can be to apply our tools to the new COVID-19 problem.
Chris is currently Professor of Food Safety and founder of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast. He serves as Pro Vice Chancellor for the university and is responsible for the Medical and Life Sciences Faculty. He has published more than 300 peer review articles, many of them relating to the detection and control of agriculture, food and environmental related contaminants. His main research interests are in the development of innovative techniques to provide early warning of toxin threats across complex food supply systems. Protecting the integrity of the food supply chain from fraud is also a key research topic and Chris led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal.