First-Ever Clinical T-Cell Based Test for Patients Confirms Recent or Prior COVID-19 Infection

Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation (Seattle, WA, USA) has launched T-Detect COVID, the first clinical T-cell based test to confirm recent or prior COVID-19 infection.

Knowledge of prior COVID-19 infection is critically important for those who believe they may have been infected with the virus but have not been able to confirm a diagnosis. Until now, antibody tests have been the primary way to determine recent or prior COVID-19 infection. T-cell tests take an entirely new approach to determine prior infection by looking at a different but equally important part of our immune system, the T cell. In the setting of COVID-19, T-cell responses arise earlier than antibodies and persist in the blood for longer.


In real-world studies, the first-in-class T-Detect COVID test outperformed leading antibody tests. Patients can order T-Detect COVID online at www.t-detect.com by answering a few eligibility questions through a secure portal. A virtual provider will authorize a prescription and patients can have their blood drawn by a mobile phlebotomist at their home or they can visit one of nearly 2,000 Labcorp patient service centers. Patients will receive an email notification when their results are available, and they can view them via a secure portal. Patients ordering T-Detect COVID have the opportunity to contribute to ongoing research to further the understanding of T cell-based immunity to COVID-19. This is particularly important as scientists work to define immunity and establish correlates of protection to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, resulting from natural infection or vaccination. T-Detect is currently under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).

“T-Detect COVID is the first T-cell test for patients and the first product resulting from Adaptive’s TCR-Antigen Map collaboration with Microsoft,” said Adaptive Biotechnologies Chief Executive Officer, Chad Robins. “By mapping the human immune response to COVID-19, we have developed a simple blood-based clinical test to help detect recent or prior infections from our T cells. This approach will be scaled for more accurate and early diagnosis of many infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders and cancer.”

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Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation