Joshua Tan, Ph.D.
Chief, Antibody Biology Unit, Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator, NIH - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Finalist Essay: Searching for Common Ground
Abstract:
Initially linked to only mild disease, coronaviruses have been revealed in the 21st century to be capable of causing severe disease and death.
To develop new tools that combat different coronaviruses, Dr. Tan performed an epitope-agnostic screen on B cells from COVID-19 convalescents to identify monoclonal antibodies that target multiple coronaviruses.
He identified two antibodies that neutralized both alphacoronaviruses and betacoronaviruses, including all SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.
Biochemical and structural assays revealed that both antibodies bound to the fusion peptide, which is highly conserved in all four coronavirus genera.
Importantly, the antibody COV44-79 limited SARS-CoV-2-mediated disease in a hamster model.
These findings highlight the fusion peptide as a candidate for the development of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies that aim to combat a wide variety of coronaviruses.
About Joshua Tan:
Joshua Tan received his BSc from Monash University and a Ph.D. in Infection, Immunology and Translational Medicine from the University of Oxford.
After completing his postdoctoral fellowship, which was jointly performed at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Bellinzona, the University of Oxford, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), he started his lab in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH in 2020.
His research focuses on understanding the human antibody response to infectious pathogens, including Plasmodium falciparum, SARS-CoV-2, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, through the study of monoclonal antibodies.