# Mechanisms and Duration of Immunity to SARS-CoV-2

> **NIH NIH U54** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $440,000

## Abstract

Primary immune deficiency disorders (PID) affect 1 in 2,000 individuals in the U.S., twice the prevalence of  non-Hodgkin lymphoma. PID patients are at risk for severe COVID-19 and impaired responses to vaccination.  Research into vaccine boosting in these individuals is clearly of importance for public health. Study of these  patients, many of which have single-gene inborn causes for their phenotype, offers the valuable opportunity  to correlate genotypes with immunological phenotypes in humans. Dr. Boyd will collaborate with Dr. Charlotte  Cunningham-Rundles, a world expert in PID at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, to analyze  the serological and B and T lymphocyte responses to vaccination and boosting using previously-collected  plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from a cohort of 142 PID patients whose disorders affect  adaptive immune responses with a range of severity, and whose immunological phenotypes can include  autoreactivity in addition to impaired protective immunity. The most common diagnosis in this cohort is  Common Variable Immune Deficiency, (CVID). These patients generate suboptimal vaccine responses, but  some can still mount specific antibody titers after vaccination. We will carry out an in-depth systemsimmunology characterization of serological responses and B cell and T cell populations in these patients,  characterizing the frequencies, cellular phenotypes, B cell and T cell receptor sequences, and antigen  epitopes targeted by antigen-specific B cells, using a panel of 14 different DNA-tagged SARS-CoV-2 variant  antigen tetramers. Examination of T cell responses in the PID patients will include analysis of vaccine  antigen-stimulated T cell frequencies and TCR sequences, and detailed flow cytometric immunophenotyping.  These data will provide clinically relevant information about SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and boosting  responses in PID patients to potentially contribute to clinical guidance as new Omicron variant-containing  vaccine boosters are implemented, and should provide insights into the immunological genes, pathways and  cell populations that contribute to adaptive immune responses and memory formation after mRNA  vaccination in human patients.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10706724
- **Project number:** 3U54CA260517-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Scott Dexter Boyd
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $440,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-09-23 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10706724

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10706724, Mechanisms and Duration of Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 (3U54CA260517-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10706724. Licensed CC0.

---

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