The COVID-19 pandemic has affected hundreds of thousands of people across the world. While we are taking important steps to slow the spread of the virus, there are many things that still need to be done in order to develop a vaccine. FITCI’s newest client, VirIntel, is performing very important research that will play a part in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. Founded on April 3rd, 2020 by CEO Illya Mazo, COO Vladimir Litvak, and CTO Yuliy Litvak VirIntel is working to develop a “specific and affordable blood test for the detection and characterization of the immune response to COVID-19.” As such, their test will serve to detect and measure anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a patient’s bloodstream.
The team at VirIntel has stated that their test will determine “if someone’s immune system has learned to create antibodies that fight a particular infection,” which, in this case, would be COVID-19. Through determining if a patient has antibodies it will be possible to tell whether individuals have already been infected with COVID-19 and will provide researchers with critical data needed for future vaccine development. Additionally, the team says that their test will help to “predict the vulnerability of different people to virus infections based on their blood sample specifics.”
The test is currently in the research stage of development and the team is now recruiting volunteers who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate a small sample of blood to test for SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies. VirIntel says that once fully developed the test will be suitable for determining the effectiveness of future vaccines designed to prevent COVID-19.
