# Discovery of broad-spectrum, cross-neutralizing bispecific antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 using high throughput functional screening

> **NIH NIH R43** · AMBERSTONE BIOSCIENCES, INC · 2021 · $300,000

## Abstract

Project Summary
In the past two decades the world has witnessed several devastating coronavirus outbreaks including SARS-
CoV in 2002, MERS-CoV in 2012, and the SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
SARS-CoV-2 likely emerged from bats, evolving into a new harmful strain that is highly fit for human transmission.
In the first four-plus months since its initial identification, over 4,700 SARS-CoV-2 variants have been isolated,
including diverse mutants that can contribute to high variability in viral pathogenicity. Developing vaccines for
SARS-CoV-2 is a valid and ultimate goal that is being actively pursued, yet there are well-founded cautions that
conventional vaccine development will take years and is less straightforward than hoped. Further, the global
prevalence of COVID-19 in more than 200 countries and territories, compounded with the real probability of new
recombination events, will expedite the emergence of novel fit variants that may circumvent any conventional
vaccines or therapeutics currently being evaluated. However, the biomedical field is utterly unprepared for such
scenarios where the conventional vaccines and therapeutics cannot protect us from current or novel virulent
SARS-CoV-2 variants.
This proposal aims to discover broad-spectrum, cross-neutralizing bispecific antibodies simultaneously targeting
not only SARS-CoV-2 but also two other detrimental coronavirus strains (SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV), in part
using a cutting-edge high throughput functional discovery technology. Such bispecific antibodies can target two
critical spots of a coronavirus, thereby offering an effective measure to tackle large viral variability and potential
therapeutic resistance. The main objectives of this Phase I study are to discover broad-spectrum bispecific
antibody candidates against the three coronaviruses concurrently (Aims 1 and 2) and to optimize these candidate
molecules to obtain final two leads that are feasible for translational research and clinical development. This
Phase I feasibility study will offer optimized bispecific lead molecules that can be licensed to or co-developed by
pharmaceutical companies to facilitate subsequent development as a highly effective therapy and/or passive
vaccine against common SARS-CoV-2 and relevant arising mutant strains, thereby making an immediate and
significant impact on the society and economy.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10152161
- **Project number:** 1R43AI157382-01
- **Recipient organization:** AMBERSTONE BIOSCIENCES, INC
- **Principal Investigator:** George Guikai Wu
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $300,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-02-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10152161

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10152161, Discovery of broad-spectrum, cross-neutralizing bispecific antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 using high throughput functional screening (1R43AI157382-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10152161. Licensed CC0.

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