‘Spike-liposomes’ pioneered with CITRIS support

Microscope image of spike-liposomes showing in green in top right, ACE2 receptor cells showing in red in bottom right and composite proteins showing in gold on left.

Supported by a CITRIS COVID-19 Seed Funding award, a team of engineers at the University of California, Berkeley has created mimics of COVID-19 — dubbed “spike-liposomes” by the researchers — that can be used to test the efficacy of neutralizing antibodies that could be used to treat COVID-19 patients.

“What’s really cool about this technique is that it is very high-throughput,” said CITRIS PI and senior author Lydia Sohn. “It adds a new strategy for combating this virus.”