# Administrative Supplement for Emory SeroNet "Immune Regulation of COVID-19 Infection in Cancer and Autoimmunity"

> **NIH NIH U54** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $622,147

## Abstract

6XPPDU\Abstract
With the additional funding of this administrative supplement, we will complete projects that
achieve the full extent of the research initially designated for a 5-year period.
Project 1. COVID-19 infection and vaccination in autoimmunity (Sanz and Lee)
We will complete additional single cell analysis of SARS-CoV-2-specific B cells and ASC in the
context of booster vaccination and breakthrough infection, to add power to the initial analysis
proposed for 20 total patients. We will analyze an additional 24 patients similarly split between
booster and vaccination in healthy control and SLE (N=6 per group). In this validation cohort, we
will perform single cell ATAC-seq analysis to integrate transcriptional and epigenetic regulatory
programs. We will also analyze the contribution of B cell and ASC to the pathogenesis of long-
COVID using antigen-specific flow cytometry and MENSA assays of the antibodies produced by
contemporaneous antibody-secreting cells derived from a validation cohort of PASC patents and
controls. As before, we will recruit PASC patients at least 90 days after resolution of the acute
infection for both healthy controls and patients with SLE (N=60 each); COVID-19 recovered
patients (N=30 from HC and SLE each); and 30 patients with stable SLE. This design will allow
us to understand the degree of anti-viral reactivity and autoreactivity in the different groups in
order to define the contributions of these features to long-COVID.
Project 3. Regulation of SARS-CoV-2 immunity in cancer patients (Ahmed and Dhodapkar)
We will expand our study on NSCLC patients to determine the impact of PD-1 targeted
immunotherapy on the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine responses, and we will longitudinally examine the
functionality of SARS-CoV-2 specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in NSCLC patients responding to
antigen re-exposure. We will further characterize the B cell and T cell responses of patients
with different lymphomas and undergoing different treatments to better understand their immune
response to vaccines, and we will evaluate the immune responses to booster vaccines in MM
patients receiving bispecific antibodies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11159278
- **Project number:** 3U54CA260563-02S3
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** MADHAV V DHODAPKAR
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $622,147
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2025-03-24

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11159278

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11159278, Administrative Supplement for Emory SeroNet "Immune Regulation of COVID-19 Infection in Cancer and Autoimmunity" (3U54CA260563-02S3). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11159278. Licensed CC0.

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