Our Story
During the pandemic, we uncovered that millions of individuals are vulnerable to life-threatening infections due to antibodies that inhibit their immune signaling molecules. Antibodies are normally produced by our immune system to protect our bodies from foreign entities, like viruses. However, in some cases, the body produces “autoantibodies” that, instead of recognizing a foreign antigen, target and react with our own proteins, tissues and organs.
Researchers discovered that nearly 20% of patients with severe or life-threatening COVID had rogue autoantibodies that block crucial proteins—called type I interferons—involved in ramping up antiviral defenses. They showed that these autoantibodies impaired the body’s ability to fight infection and prevent the virus from multiplying and spreading to other tissues. Although these autoantibodies can be found in normal healthy individuals of any age, they are quite prevalent as we age, with nearly 1 in 15 persons over the age of 65 years old as carriers.
The Impact
These autoantibodies prevent our immune system from protecting us not just from SARS-CoV-2 but from many viruses, including influenza, herpes simplex, West Nile virus and many more. Individuals who have them are 100X more likely to end up hospitalized and suffer from severe disease. Importantly, should a novel virus emerge, carriers of these autoantibodies will be left unprotected as they were when the pandemic began.
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Our Science
Our bioinformaticians developed advanced computational approaches to examine structural features of interferon autoantibodies, enabling our scientists to engineer several novel therapies that show promise in blocking these harmful autoantibodies. Our goal is to restore normal immune function and thus prevent life-threatening viral infections in carriers of interferon autoantibodies. We are at the forefront of developing strategies to specifically block harmful autoantibodies.