A Rapid Saliva Test for Monitoring Immune Protection against SARS -CoV-2 and its Variants

Abstract

Given the ongoing transmission and emergence of SARS-Cov-2 variants globally, it is critical to have a timely assessment on individuals’ immune responses as well as population immunity. Important questions such as the durability of COVID-19 immunity or the efficacy of vaccines require large datasets to generate meaningful insights. However, due to the complexity and relatively high-cost of many immunity assays and the needs for blood-drawing specialists, these assays were mostly limited to small-scale clinical studies. Our work demonstrated the potential of a non-invasive, inexpensive and data-driven solution for large-scale immunity surveillance and for predictive modeling of vaccine efficacy. Combining a proprietary saliva processing method and an ultra-sensitive digital detection technology, we were able to rapidly gather information regarding personalized immune response following infection or vaccination, monitor temporal evolution, and optimize predictive models for variant protection.