Hoping Llamas Will Become Coronavirus Heroes

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Hoping Llamas Will Become Coronavirus Heroes

By Jillian Kramer

May 6, 2020

 

Winter is a 4-year-old chocolate-colored llama with spindly legs, ever-so-slightly askew ears and envy-inducing eyelashes. Some scientists hope she might be an important figure in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

 

She is not a superpowered camelid. Winter was simply the lucky llama chosen by researchers in Belgium, where she lives, to participate in a series of virus studies involving both SARS and MERS. Finding that her antibodies staved off those infections, the scientists posited that those same antibodies could also neutralize the new virus that causes Covid-19. They were right, and published their results Tuesday in the journal Cell.

 

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/science/llama-coronavirus-antibodies.html