Researchers at Imperial College London have been working with clinicians at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust on a programme of work to develop a ‘gold standard’ antibody test that can be used widely to track rates of coronavirus infections in the UK’s population.

Professor Helen Ward, Professor of Public Health at Imperial College London, talks about her involvement in the REACT study to assess a range of different antibody tests for their accuracy against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and how easily people can use them at home.

Professor Graham Taylor, Professor of Human Retrovirology in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London, is part of a team carrying out antibody testing to assess if a person has previously been infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. At the Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) COVID-19 webinar series, he talked us through how teams at St Mary’s Hospital and North West London Pathology based at Charing Cross Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, were performing developing and testing antibody tests to inform a nationwide study.

Dr Christina Atchison and Professor Wendy Barclay gave a live Q&A session on 22 July to share all things testing, from why antibody testing is helping our response to the outbreak, to why it's too soon to rely on them to change our behaviour. They responded to questions posed by a live online audience.