New MRC PPU and CVR Coronavirus Toolkit Website Launched

Researchers within the Reagents and Services division of the MRC PPU and the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) have worked extremely hard since January in order to produce expression plasmids, proteins and sheep affinity purified polyclonal antibodies to all 28 proteins encoded for by SARS-CoV-2. In addition, they have generated equivalent reagents to 10 other proteins from related Coronaviruses.

To make these reagents available worldwide in the fight against Covid-19, a new website has been created, https://mrcppu-covid.bio. The reagents are available to academics and the pharmaceutical industry across the globe.

For each plasmid, protein and antibody reagent, detailed datasheets with QC information are available on the website. Information on how to order any reagent is also provided.

QC analysis is still in progress for the majority of the antibodies, including antigen detection limits, and virus detection in infected cells by western blotting, immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence. Full QC information on how each antibody performs in these assays will be added to the website as it becomes available. The site will be updated regularly with new reagents as they are developed.

For further information on our reagents or how to access these please email Dr James Hastie (c.j.hastie@dundee.ac.uk) and Dr Paul Davies (p.y.davies@dundee.ac.uk) from MRC PPU or Dr Suzannah Rihn (suzannah.rihn@glasgow.ac.uk) from the CVR.