# Proteomics Core: Systems Biology to Identify Biomarkers of Neonatal Vaccine Immunogenicity

> **NIH NIH U19** · BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL · 2020 · $2,174,014

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
In Dec 2019, a cluster of respiratory illness in Wuhan China defined the onset of a worldwide pandemic involving
a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). SARS-CoV-2 infected patients are frequently asymptomatic, but initial
epidemiologic estimates from the WHO indicate that ~15% of patients develop severe disease including viral
pneumonia often requiring ICU care due to progression to develop life-threatening complications including (but
not limited to) shock and secondary organ failures, and super-infections. Risk factors for increased mortality from
COVID-19 include older age, COPD, ischemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus, and immunosuppression.
Although direly needed, no targeted therapies or vaccinations are available as of now. Major research efforts
have been launched towards the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, including those within Boston
Children’s Hospital’s Precision Vaccines Program. To facilitate and accelerate these therapy and vaccination
development efforts, more detailed immunophenotyping and understanding of the host immune response to
SARS-CoV-2 are required. This knowledge may inform prognostication of resolution of infection versus disease
progression and identify the relevant targets for potential therapeutic interventions. Overall, the outcomes of
these immunophenotyping maps are critical for identifying and prioritizing host-directed interventions to limit or
mitigate disease progression. Based on this rationale, we hypothesize that plasma proteomics and metabolomics
from hospitalized COVID-19 patients, longitudinally collected during the hospital stay and during the subsequent
convalescence period of up to one year post-discharge from the hospital will provide much needed insights into
the intricacies of the immunophenotype of COVD19 patients. Thus, they will be crucial to support NIAID’s efforts
towards enabling and accelerating therapy and vaccine development. To this end, we propose a Proteomics and
Metabolomics Core (PMC) to support NIAID’s efforts to characterize at the molecular and cellular level the
immunophenotype associated with COVID-19.
The PMC will quantitative map the global plasma proteome (Specific Aim 1) and the global plasma metabolome
(Specific Aim 2), followed by hypothesis-driven targeted metabolomics to detect metabolites and metabolic
pathways that play a role in the COVID-19 disease progression (Specific Aim 3). All plasma samples will be
longitudinally collected from COVID-19 patients upon hospitalization and the following 28 days in the hospital as
well as the subsequent convalescence period of up to 12 months after discharge.
We anticipate that the PMC will make substantial contributions to confronting the new COVID-19 pandemic, for
which therapeutic strategies and vaccines must be developed rapidly. The PMC will help portray a broad profile
of the changes that occur in COVID-19 patients and that are associated with disease severity, progression and
recovery to suppo...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10147449
- **Project number:** 3U19AI118608-04S3
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Hanno Steen
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $2,174,014
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-05-11 → 2021-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10147449

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10147449, Proteomics Core: Systems Biology to Identify Biomarkers of Neonatal Vaccine Immunogenicity (3U19AI118608-04S3). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10147449. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*