Sarah George

Dr. Sarah George

Department of Internal Medicine,Saint Louis University, 1100 S. Grand Blvd, St Louis, MO 63104, USA

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

7Years (2020-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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13 September 2021 in Antiviral Research
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
SPScott Parker
Scott Parker
JDJune D'Angelo
June D'Angelo
RBR. Mark Buller
R. Mark Buller
DSDonald F. Smee
Donald F. Smee
JLJohan Lantto
Johan Lantto
SGSarah George
Sarah George

22 August 2020 in bioRxiv
Verified
Preprint
Open access
PDF file
TSTara Steffen
Tara Steffen
TSTaylor Stone
Taylor Stone
MHMariah Hassert
Mariah Hassert
EGElizabeth Geerling
Elizabeth Geerling
BGBrian Grimberg
Brian Grimberg
JBJames Brien
James Brien
Natural infection of SARS-CoV-2 in humans leads to the development of a strong neutralizing antibody response, however the immunodominant targets of the polyclonal neutralizing antibody response are still unknown. Here, we functionally define the role SARS-CoV-2 spike plays as a target of the human neutralizing antibody response. In this study, we identify the spike protein subunits that contain antigenic determinants and examine the neutralization capacity of polyclonal sera from a cohort of patients that tested qRT-PCR-positive for SARS-CoV-2. Using an ELISA format, we assessed binding of human sera to spike subunit 1 (S1), spike subunit 2 (S2) and the receptor binding domain (RBD) of spike. To functionally identify the key target of neutralizing antibody, we depleted sera of subunit-specific antibodies to determine the contribution of these individual subunits to the antigen-specific neutralizing antibody response. We show that epitopes within RBD are the target of a majority of the neutralizing antibodies in the human polyclonal antibody response . These data provide critical information for vaccine development and development of sensitive and specific serological testing.