T Cell Response Assay

A reporter-cell assay for rapid, single-step detection of antigen-specific T cell responses from a finger-prick blood sample. It measures cellular (T cell) immunity directly from as little as 50 µL of whole blood, collapsing the multi-step, large-volume flow-cytometry/ELISPOT workflow into one simultaneous incubation read out on a standard luminometer.

Key Information

Overview

Cellular (T cell) immunity is a critical indicator of long-term protection, persisting even as antibody levels wane after infection or vaccination. Yet T cell response is rarely included in routine immune monitoring because conventional assays are complex and tedious. Flow cytometry and ELISPOT have long turnaround times, require multiple processing steps, and consume large sample volumes (3–5 mL of blood and 100,000–300,000 cells), ruling out finger-prick collection and decentralised testing.

This technology provides a method, an engineered reporter cell line (and the vector behind it), and a ready-to-use kit for detecting antigen-specific T cell responses in whole blood or PBMC samples, meeting the demand for an assay with minimal sample volume, few processing steps, and a read-out on standard, widely available instruments.

Our Innovation

• Co-incubation of the sample, antigen, and reporter cell line together in a single step. Simplifies the conventional two-stage process of stimulating the sample and then transferring the supernatant onto a separate reporter.
• An in-house engineered reporter cell line. Generates a clean, quantifiable signal read on a luminometer or flow cytometer in response to antigen-specific T cells secreting IFN-γ.
• An optional co-stimulation boost. Cuts incubation from roughly 19 hours to roughly 12 hours while preserving signal by co-incubating with monoclonal antibodies to co-stimulatory molecules

Potential Applications

• Vaccine immunogenicity & efficacy monitoring
• Infectious-disease immune surveillance
• Point-of-care & decentralised immune testing
• Cellular-immunity research tools

Our value proposition

• Finger-prick compatible. Detects a response from as little as 50 µL of blood, versus the 3–5 mL needed by conventional assays, enabling decentralised and paediatric testing.
• More sensitive than the standards. In head-to-head testing, more stimulated samples cleared the detection threshold than with flow cytometry or ELISPOT.
• Faster and simpler. One incubation reduces hands-on time to about 2 hours or less, with total turnaround of roughly 12.5–24.5 hours.
• Easy to adopt. Delivered as a complete kit and read on standard luminometers, requiring minimal new infrastructure or training.