2 PhD Students at Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation

This project is part of a research program grant (2 PhD students and 2 technicians) focused on cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2. Sanquin is in the unique position to collect longitudinal samples of individuals previously infected by SARS-Cov-2. Samples are being collected from individuals with different disease courses from asymptomatic up to very severe. In this project we aim to elucidate the evolution of immune response against SARS-CoV-2 in relation to severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Besides ex vivo analysis focused on heterogeneity of the antigen-specific cell phenotype, clonality and crossreactivity, also in vitro studies will be performed to investigate the functional properties of SARS-CoV-2-specific B and T cells compared to specific B and T cells against other (common) pathogens, like TT, CMV or RSV. State of the art analysis will be applied for the analysis, such as TCR and BCR sequence analysis, single cell RNA sequencing and multi-color flowcytometry.
One PhD student will focus on T cell responses and the other PhD student will focus on B cell responses.