A renowned team of virologists, pathologists, and clinicians at the Mount Sinai Health System developed, validated, and launched a blood test for COVID-19 antibodies that received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) emergency use authorization late Wednesday.
The blood test determines whether individuals have antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. It is used for the qualitative detection of human IgG antibodies in serum and plasma that is collected from individuals suspected of having been infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Early development of the assay, led by Florian Krammer, PhD, Professor of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, enabled Mount Sinai to become the first health system in the nation to undertake a convalescent plasma program that transfers the antibody-rich plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients into those who are critically ill.
