(Joe Maher / Stringer)
The American Association for the Advancement of Science recognized Jason McLellan, namesake professor of the University of Texas at Austin McLellan Lab, and molecular biologist Daniel Wrapp as Golden Goose winners for their work with llama antibodies that have helped create COVID-19 treatments.
According to Texas Monthly, the annual Golden Goose Awards were named on Tuesday to honor scientific breakthroughs in unusual areas, which is fitting for McLellan and Wrapp’s award for using antibodies from a llama named Winter to develop COVID-19 treatments like Bamlamivimab.
Wrapp said that llamas produce nanobodies, a specialized form of antibodies that tend to be more stable.
“The goal with both a vaccine or a therapeutic is to get antibodies that recognize the virus and neutralize it into a person’s bloodstream,” Wrapp said.
Wrapp continued: “So your body’s not producing the antibodies, but because they’re circulating in your bloodstream for a given period of time, you’ll be protected during that period of time.”
Antibodies target a spike protein on the surface of the virus, which allows the virus to infect to host cells, Wrapp said. When antibodies bind to the spike protein, they prevent it from functioning.
“Because llama antibodies are more stable, hopefully they can survive in your bloodstream longer, which is important, since you’re not actually producing them,” Wrapp said. “It’s important that they stick around longer, so you have protection for that extended period of time.”
The discovery of such antibodies in llamas occurred in the early 1990s. Work to produce the nanobodies to fight against coronaviruses started in 2016, Wrapp said.
Llamas’ nanobodies are a mutation that has been useful to them, Wrapp said.
“It gave them sort of an evolutionary advantage to produce these antibodies, which could fight off disease, and so it got incorporated,” Wrapp said.