The findings support many vaccine strategies being used to tackle the new coronavirus.

A team led by scientists at Scripps Research has discovered a common molecular feature found in many of the human antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The scientists, whose study appears today (July 13, 2020) in Science, reviewed data on nearly 300 anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies that their labs and others have found in convalescent COVID-19 patients over the past few months. They noted that a subset of these antibodies is particularly powerful at neutralizing the virus — and these potent antibodies are all encoded, in part, by the same antibody gene, IGHV3-53.