<p>The global COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgent
demand for accurate rapid point of care diagnostic tests. Antigen-based assays
are suitably inexpensive and can be rapidly mass-produced, but sufficiently
accurate performance requires highly-optimized antibodies and assay conditions.
An automated liquid handling system, customized to handle lateral flow
immunoassay (LFA) arrays, was used for high-throughput antibody
screening of anti-nucleocapsid antibodies that will perform optimally on an LFA.
Six hundred seventy-three anti-nucleocapsid antibody pairs were tested as both
capture and detection reagents with the goal of finding those pairs that have
the greatest affinity for unique epitopes of the nucleocapsid protein of
SARS-CoV-2 while also performing optimally in an LFA format. In contrast to traditional
antibody screening methods (e.g. ELISA, bio-layer interferometry), the methods
described here integrate real-time LFA reaction kinetics and binding directly on
nitrocellulose. We have identified several candidate antibody pairs that are
suitable for further development of an LFA for SARS-CoV-2. </p>
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