In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, is joined by William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories. They discuss the uptick of COVID-19 cases and the strains of the virus that are currently circulating.

A team of researchers has confirmed that neutralizing monoclonal antibody (nMAb) therapies are associated with reduced risk of adverse outcomes of COVID-19 in high-risk populations. The cohort study, published in JAMA, included more than 167,000 nonhospitalized patients from health care systems based in California, Texas, and Utah, and at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, is joined by William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories, and special guest Susan Van Meter, president of the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA). In celebration of Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, they discuss the critical role laboratories play in patient care and key legislative issues that impact the profession.

While the accelerated innovation and increased access to testing that’s occurred because of the COVID-19 pandemic has been critically important to worldwide health care, so too has the crash course in laboratory testing and pathology the general public has received throughout the entirety of the pandemic.

Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., director of Mayo Clinic’s Clinical Virology Laboratory, provides insight on the newest COVID-19 subvariant – XBB.1.16, also known as “Arcturus.”