# Vaccine and Infection Induced Immunity in the Young and Aged

> **NIH NIH U19** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $1,864,381

## Abstract

The overarching goal of our CCHI application on “Vaccine and Infection Induced Immunity in the Young and
Aged” is to address fundamental issues about innate and adaptive immunity in humans to infection and
vaccination. Our proposal is focused around a large cohort of > 700 COVID-19 patients that we have been
following for the past 3 years and now propose to follow for an additional 5 years during the course of this
proposal. These patients were recruited at our two clinical research sites, Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia)
and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Seattle, Washington). Our combined cohort of > 700 patients consists of
individuals who were first infected with SARS-CoV-2 and then received the mRNA Pfizer or Moderna vaccine,
and some individuals who got the vaccine first and were then infected. Several of these individuals then had
booster shots and some also had breakthrough infections. During this 3 year period of multiple antigen
encounters we have collected on average between 5-10 blood samples from each patient. We now propose to
collect 3-4 samples/year from each patient for the next 5 years. The longitudinal assessment of innate, humoral
and cellular immunity in this large cohort over an 8 year period with 20-30 time points for each person will provide
an extraordinary and unprecedented look at the durability and evolution adaptive and innate immunity following
infection and vaccination. These studies will not only provide insight into the underlying mechanisms of innate
immunity and long-term immune memory but will also inform how we develop optimal vaccination strategies
against SARS-CoV-2 and other emerging viral infections. We have assembled a group of outstanding
investigators from five institutions with highly complementary expertise and organized our renewal application
along the following Projects and Cores: Project 1: Immune Memory: Drs. Rafi Ahmed and Julie McElrath; Project
2: Innate Immunity: Drs. Bali Pulendran and Donna Farber; Project 3: immune Senescence: Dr. Jorg Goronzy;
Core A: Administrative: Dr. Rafi Ahmed; Core B: Genomics Core: Drs. Steve Bosinger and William Greenleaf;
Core C: Clinical and Biostatistics: Drs. Sri Edupuganti, Julie McElrath, Max Lau, and Veronika Zarnitsyna. The
overall broad Aims of our CCHI program are as follows: Aim 1: Longitudinal analysis of T and B cell responses
to SARS-CoV-2. Aim 2: Innate Immunity with focus on functional and epigenetics changes in myeloid cells.
Aim 3: Effect of aging on SARS-CoV-2 T cell responses.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10825206
- **Project number:** 2U19AI057266-21
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Rafi Ahmed
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,864,381
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2003-09-01 → 2029-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10825206

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10825206, Vaccine and Infection Induced Immunity in the Young and Aged (2U19AI057266-21). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10825206. Licensed CC0.

---

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