Linda Wooldridge and Laura Rivino et al.
The work: Cellular immunology and understanding immune responses to SAR-CoV-2. Severe COVID-19 manifests as inflammatory injury in lungs, blood vessels and multiple organs. The team are studying blood cells in acutely sick patients and convalescents patients, longitudinal sampling and using Flow cytometry and ELISpot assays to determine the following:
- Hyperinflammation: Provide a broad map of the hyperactivated innate and adaptive immune cell types and pro-inflammatory mediators associated with severe COVID-19’
- Natural History of COVID-19 Infection in a cohort of ~135 HCW Workers (LOGIC): Aims to describe the relationship between symptoms, mucosal viral load and the development of immunity
- Immune memory: How robust is it, is it protective and how long does it persist for?
Funding: EBI Rapid Response, Wellcome Trust, DARO funding for essential equipment, BBSRC