Minimally invasive antibody blood test for COVID-19 that can be self-collected at home

Northwestern University scientists have developed an antibody blood test that is minimally invasive and can be self-collected at home.

Professor Thomas McDade of the Department of Anthropology at Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine discusses this test’s importance in the Northwestern Now story: “Home blood test for COVID-19 antibodies can measure vaccine effectiveness and progress toward herd immunity.”

“Neutralizing antibodies are important because they measure the level of immune protection against infection,” said senior study author Professor Thomas McDade.”In the context of the pandemic, this is important for evaluating the efficacy of vaccination and the durability of immunological memory and protection following natural infection.”

“Our approach is minimally invasive and low cost,” said co-author Alexis Demonbreun, assistant professor of pharmacology at Feinberg. “The test has tremendous potential to help accelerate our understanding of the immune response to COVID-19 vaccination and to natural SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

Professor Thomas McDade

The study, “AA surrogate virus neutralization test to quantify antibody-mediated inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 in finger stick dried blood spot samples,” was published as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed. It is considered preliminary until it is published in a peer-reviewed journal.