Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have been awarded $1.3 million to study disparities in immune response to SARS-CoV-2, known as COVID-19, through serological testing in Arkansas.
Serological testing measures a person’s immune response to an infection in the form of antibodies in the blood.
The project will contribute to short- and long-term impact of COVID-19 and the pandemic on the physical, psychological, and social health of underrepresented minority men and women in Arkansas.
“This study will enable us to determine the duration of immunity response against SARS-CoV-2, which ultimately will determine the progression of the pandemic,” said Wendy Nembhard, PhD, chair of the Epidemiology Department in the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health and principal investigator on the project.
“We also hope to learn the influence of psychosocial and behavioral factors on the response over time by race and ethnicity.”
The study will follow 450 men and women in Arkansas who are a racially, ethnically, and geographically diverse representative sample of noninstitutionalized adults that have been tested for COVID-19 by a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Researchers will enroll participants between November 2020 and April 2021 and follow the cohort for up to 24 months after testing.
The UAMS College of Public Health will lead the effort by recruiting, enrolling, interviewing and following participants for the duration of the study.
Study participants will be recruited through data collected by the Arkansas Department of Health.
The project is funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) through the new national Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet). SeroNet is a major component of NCI’s response to the pandemic and is included in an emergency congressional appropriation of $306 million to the institute “to develop, validate, improve, and implement serological testing and associated technologies.”