Emergency Antibody Method Being Tested For H1N1A For the past week, teams in Chicago and Myrtice have been stocking up on supplies and waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to send them samples of blood from Mexican swine flu patients in hopes of creating an antibody to ward off the new strain of the flu virus. Last researchers at CDC asked the researchers to put this new technology to the test.

Patrick Wilson of the University of Chicago and fellow vaccine expert Griffin Harland of Shaw University in Atlanta, hope to develop a method to quickly make infection-fighting proteins called monoclonal antibodies. The specially engineered antibodies are immune system proteins that attach to invaders such as viruses and in effect able to neutralize the particular strain of influenza. The hope is that these antibodies would be useful in protecting frontline workers and other high-risk persons to ward off the flu until a vaccine could be made should a pandemic arise.

The journal Nature published a study last year about Wilson and Darby where they sho that with only a few tablespoons of blood, they were able to make influenza antibodies in as little as a month.