Thermo Fisher Develops New COVID-19 Antibody Assay Targeting Transplant Community

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 11 Aug 2020

Illustration

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (Waltham, MA, USA) has developed a new serological assay targeted towards transplant candidates and recipients that can detect antibodies directed against COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2).

Thermo Fisher's transplant diagnostic business has developed the LABScreen COVID Plus Assay which will be provided under the company's One Lambda brand representing leading in vitro diagnostic products for the transplant community. The assay leverages the Luminex xMAP technology to detect multiple distinct antibodies and fragments, making it more specific than current assays and able to reduce false positives caused by infections with common coronavirus. In combination with HLA antibody detection, the LABScreen COVID Plus reagents can help provide a more complete picture of a patient's antibody profile.

"We're proud of the role we play in responding to the pandemic, and this is one of many examples that demonstrate our ability and our commitment to fight COVID-19," said Nicole Brockway, president of the transplant diagnostic business for Thermo Fisher. "Transplant patients have unique needs compared to other COVID-19 patients, and with the support of Luminex and our research partners, we're delivering an innovative solution that's tailored to meet those needs."

Related Links:

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Visit expo >

Gold Member

Multiplex Genetic Analyzer

MassARRAY Dx Analyzer (Europe only)

Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels

New

Centromere B Assay

Centromere B Test

New

Silver Member

Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC

Seroconversion Panels

Latest COVID-19 News

Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel

Image: The tiny clay-based materials can be customized for a range of medical applications (Photo courtesy of Angira Roy and Sam O’Keefe)

‘Brilliantly Luminous’ Nanoscale Chemical Tool to Improve Disease Detection

Thousands of commercially available glowing molecules known as fluorophores are commonly used in medical imaging, disease detection, biomarker tagging, and chemical analysis. They are also integral in... Read more

Image: The research team has developed the uCR-Chip device to enhance kidney function testing (Photo courtesy of University of Manitoba)

Low-Cost Portable Screening Test to Transform Kidney Disease Detection

Millions of individuals suffer from kidney disease, which often remains undiagnosed until it has reached a critical stage. This silent epidemic not only diminishes the quality of life for those affected... Read more

New Method Uses Pulsed Infrared Light to Find Cancer's 'Fingerprints' In Blood Plasma

Cancer diagnoses have traditionally relied on invasive or time-consuming procedures like tissue biopsies. Now, new research published in ACS Central Science introduces a method that utilizes pulsed infrared... Read more

Carbon Nanotubes Help Build Highly Accurate Sensors for Continuous Health Monitoring

Current sensors can measure various health indicators, such as blood glucose levels, in the body. However, there is a need to develop more accurate and sensitive sensor materials that can detect lower... Read more

Molecular Diagnostics

view channel

RNA Blood Test Detects Cancers and Resistance to Treatment

A newly developed blood test offers the ability to detect cancer, understand how cancer resists treatments, and assess tissue damage from non-cancerous conditions. This innovative test, created by researchers... Read more

Image: A breakthrough study has identified a promising biomarker for early sepsis detection in neonates, children, and pregnant women (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

IL-6 Outperforms Traditional Tests for Early Sepsis Detection

Sepsis, a severe and life-threatening condition caused by the immune system’s exaggerated response to infection, remains a major cause of death globally, responsible for approximately 11 million fatalities... Read more

Image: Cardiac troponin in the prevention of cardiovascular events (Photo courtesy of Shah ASV, et al. JACC. 2025;85(14):1471-1484)

Simple Blood Test Improves Heart Attack and Stroke Risk Prediction

Troponin is a protein found in heart muscle cells that is released into the bloodstream when the heart is damaged. High-sensitivity troponin blood tests are commonly used in hospitals to diagnose heart... Read more

Image: Dr. Patrick Öckl, lead author of the study, investigates biomarkers for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (Photo courtesy of DZNE/Frommann)

Blood Biomarker Test Could Detect Genetic Predisposition to Alzheimer’s

New medications for Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, are now becoming available. These treatments, known as “amyloid antibodies,” work by promoting the removal of small deposits from... Read more

Hematology

view channel

Image: The 3-parameter CCRS model was devised specifically for patients diagnosed with clonal cytopenia (Photo courtesy of 123RF)

New Scoring System Predicts Risk of Developing Cancer from Common Blood Disorder

Clonal cytopenia of undetermined significance (CCUS) is a blood disorder commonly found in older adults, characterized by mutations in blood cells and a low blood count, but without any obvious cause or... Read more

Image: The technology has the unique ability to detect challenging RhD variants that are typically excluded by other commercial tests (Photo courtesy of BillionToOne)

Non-Invasive Prenatal Test for Fetal RhD Status Demonstrates 100% Accuracy

In the United States, approximately 15% of pregnant individuals are RhD-negative. However, in about 40% of these cases, the fetus is also RhD-negative, making the administration of RhoGAM unnecessary.... Read more

Image: Leukocyte count represents an easily accessible, inexpensive clinical marker (Photo courtesy of 123RF)

WBC Count Could Predict Severity of COVID-19 Symptoms

The global health crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to impact millions of people worldwide, with many experiencing persistent symptoms months after the initial diagnosis. Cognitive impairment... Read more

Image: The high precision platelet counting technology reduces risks that can lead to errors in cancer diagnoses (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

New Platelet Counting Technology to Help Labs Prevent Diagnosis Errors

Accurate platelet count testing is a significant challenge for laboratories. Inaccurate results can lead to misdiagnosis, missed diagnoses, and delayed treatment for a variety of potentially fatal conditions,... Read more

Immunology

view channel

Image: The cancer stem cell test can accurately choose more effective treatments (Photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati)

Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more

Machine Learning-Enabled Blood Test Predicts Immunotherapy Response in Lymphoma Patients

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has emerged as one of the most promising recent developments in the treatment of blood cancers. However, over half of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients... Read more

Post-Treatment Blood Test Could Inform Future Cancer Therapy Decisions

In the ongoing advancement of personalized medicine, a new study has provided evidence supporting the use of a tool that detects cancer-derived molecules in the blood of lung cancer patients years after... Read more

Cerebrospinal Fluid Test Predicts Dangerous Side Effect of Cancer Treatment

In recent years, cancer immunotherapy has emerged as a promising approach where the patient's immune system is harnessed to fight cancer. One form of immunotherapy, called CAR-T-cell therapy, involves... Read more

Microbiology

view channel

Image: The lab-in-tube assay could improve TB diagnoses in rural or resource-limited areas (Photo courtesy of Kenny Lass/Tulane University)

Handheld Device Delivers Low-Cost TB Results in Less Than One Hour

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, affecting an estimated 10 million people annually. In 2021, about 4.2 million TB cases went undiagnosed or unreported, mainly due to... Read more

Image: The AI-based method can more accurately detect antibiotic resistance in deadly bacteria such as tuberculosis and staph (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

New AI-Based Method Improves Diagnosis of Drug-Resistant Infections

Drug-resistant infections, particularly those caused by deadly bacteria like tuberculosis and staphylococcus, are rapidly emerging as a global health emergency. These infections are more difficult to treat,... Read more

Breakthrough Diagnostic Technology Identifies Bacterial Infections with Almost 100% Accuracy within Three Hours

Rapid and precise identification of pathogenic microbes in patient samples is essential for the effective treatment of acute infectious diseases, such as sepsis. The fluorescence in situ hybridization... Read more

Innovative ID/AST System to Help Diagnose Infectious Diseases and Combat AMR

Each year, 11 million people across the world die of sepsis out of which 1.3 million deaths are due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to weigh heavily,... Read more

Pathology

view channel

Rapid, Ultra-Sensitive, PCR-Free Detection Method Makes Genetic Analysis More Accessible

Genetic testing has been an important method for detecting infectious diseases, diagnosing early-stage cancer, ensuring food safety, and analyzing environmental DNA. For a long time, polymerase chain reaction... Read more

Image: The container to collect saliva in at home (Photo courtesy of Zsofia Kote-Jarai/ICR)

Spit Test More Accurate at Identifying Future Prostate Cancer Risk

Currently, blood tests that measure the level of a protein called prostate-specific antigen (PSA) are commonly used to identify men at higher risk for prostate cancer. This test is typically used based... Read more

DNA Nanotechnology Boosts Sensitivity of Test Strips

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, most people have become familiar with paper-based rapid test strips, also known as lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs). These tests are used to quickly detect biomarkers that... Read more

Image: The UV absorbance spectrometer being used to measure the absorbance spectra of cell culture samples (Photo courtesy of SMART CAMP)

Novel UV and Machine Learning-Aided Method Detects Microbial Contamination in Cell Cultures

Cell therapy holds great potential in treating diseases such as cancers, inflammatory conditions, and chronic degenerative disorders by manipulating or replacing cells to restore function or combat disease.... Read more

Technology

view channel

Image: The HIV-1 self-testing chip will be capable of selectively detecting HIV in whole blood samples (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples

As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more

Image: Schematic illustration of the chip (Photo courtesy of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2025.117401)

Pain-On-A-Chip Microfluidic Device Determines Types of Chronic Pain from Blood Samples

Chronic pain is a widespread condition that remains difficult to manage, and existing clinical methods for its treatment rely largely on self-reporting, which can be subjective and especially problematic... Read more

Image: Pictorial representation of the working principle of a functionalized Carbon Dots CDs and EB based Func sensor (Photo courtesy of Toppari/University of Jyväskylä)

Innovative, Label-Free Ratiometric Fluorosensor Enables More Sensitive Viral RNA Detection

Viruses present a major global health risk, as demonstrated by recent pandemics, making early detection and identification essential for preventing new outbreaks. While traditional detection methods are... Read more

Image: In ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, light bounces off a crystal and briefly touches the sample, enabling researchers to take measurements (Photo courtesy of Georgia State University)

Smartphones Could Diagnose Diseases Using Infrared Scans

Rapid advancements in technology may soon make it possible for individuals to bypass invasive medical procedures by simply uploading a screenshot of their lab results from their phone directly to their doctor.... Read more

Industry

view channel

$Image: The collaboration aims to leverage Oxford Nanopore\'s sequencing platform and Cepheid\'s GeneXpert system to advance the field of sequencing for infectious diseases (Photo courtesy of Cepheid)$

Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more

Image: The Grifols-IBL partnership will initially focus on biomarker panels for neurological and oncological conditions (Photo courtesy of Grifols)

Grifols and Tecan’s IBL Collaborate on Advanced Biomarker Panels

Grifols (Barcelona, Spain), one of the world’s leading producers of plasma-derived medicines and innovative diagnostic solutions, is expanding its offer in clinical diagnostics through a strategic partnership... Read more

Image: BIOTIA-ID is an NGS platform that accurately and sensitively diagnoses infectious disease-causing pathogens (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

New Collaboration to Advance Microbial Identification for Infectious Disease Diagnostics

With the rise of global pandemics, antimicrobial resistance, and emerging pathogens, healthcare systems worldwide are increasingly dependent on advanced diagnostic tools to guide clinical decisions.... Read more

Image: The Procollagen-III-peptide (PIIINP) ELISA kit (Photo courtesy of Cisbio Bioassays)

Tecan Acquires ELISA Immunoassay Assets from Revvity's Cisbio Bioassays

Tecan Group (Männedorf, Switzerland) has entered into an agreement to acquire certain assets relating to key ELISA immunoassay products from Cisbio Bioassays SAS (Codolet, France), a subsidiary of the... Read more