Reproducible Isolation, Stimulation and Analysis of Antigen-specific T-cells to Further SARS-CoV-2 Research

To prevent and treat SARS-CoV-2 infections, a comprehensive understanding of both the humoral and cellular immune responses is essential.  One critical component to understanding the fundamental immunological processes to COVID-19 is analyzing rare antigen-specific T cells. Following infection or vaccination, the presence of these cells can also indicate whether or not long-term protection is gained. Yet, working with antigen-specific T cells can prove challenging to many researchers — critically low cell frequencies, inflammatory environments, non-specific labeling, and high background often make enrichment and analysis difficult.

At Miltenyi Biotec, we offer a complete workflow that has been optimized at every step to address key challenges faced by researchers working with these rare cells. The ideal combination of products for sample preparation, cell stimulation, pre-enrichment and flow cytometry ensure successful analysis.

Learning objectives:

1. Discuss our complete workflow for isolation, stimulation, enrichment and analysis of antigen-specific T cells.

2. Explain how to overcome key challenges, including low cell frequencies, unspecific labeling and high background staining.

3. Discuss which technologies enable efficient, gentle, and safe isolation of antigen-specific T cells for subsequent deep profiling by, e.g., single-cell genomics analyses.