Oxford firm to test vaccines
LONDON: Britain yesterday said it would partner with an Oxfordbased firm to provide testing for the T cell response of coronavirus vaccine candidates to try to assess their immune responses.
T cell immunity is thought to be essential to protection against infection from the SarsCov2 coronavirus, and could provide longer immunity than antibodies.
The UK Vaccine Taskforce has chosen Oxford Immunotec to supply T cell testing for its assessment of vaccine candidates.
Britain has signed supply deals for six different coronavirus vaccine candidates.
Oxford Immunotec said its techonology platform enabled the centralisation of fresh blood samples from different locations to measure the T cell response in a standardised way.
It said the platform, known as TSpot, was being used to identify the T cells made in response to the pathogen that causes tuberculosis. — Reuters