1 Enroll in the Study
To participate, you must meet the eligibility criteria, watch the consent video above and provide written consent by signing the Study Consent Form.
You can start your enrollment process here.
Our goal is to understand differences in personal immune response to infection by the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2. Each individual makes their own unique set of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, and in this study we will investigate how these differences may be important for immunity, the duration of immunity, and for severity of symptoms.
To participate, you must meet the eligibility criteria, watch the consent video above and provide written consent by signing the Study Consent Form.
You can start your enrollment process here.
Before providing a blood sample, we will ask you to answer a few questions about your health and medical history. You will answer this short questionnaire for every sample you provide. To protect your privacy, your medical information will be kept separate from any personal identifiers, and this information will not be shared with outside parties.
You can preview the medical history questionnaire here.
Every 6 months we will mail you a sample collection kit, which you will use to collect your blood at home. Then you simply mail the sample to our lab in the pre-paid envelope provided.
You can watch the instructional video on how to use the blood collection device here.
Your blood sample will be analyzed in our laboratory and tested for antibodies against the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2. For every sample you provide us you will receive a personalized report showing your unique antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 based on our technology, Serum Epitope Repertoire Analysis (SERA).
You can see an example of a report here.
About Serimmune’s COVID-19 Research
Researchers at Serimmune have mapped antibody specificities in SARS-CoV-2 infections back to their target epitopes. We have identified novel immune responses which may one day assist in the development of novel vaccines and therapeutics for this and other viruses.
Learn more about SERA and Serimmune’s Human Immunity Map
The Serimmune COVID-19 Immunity study “Human antibody repertoire profiling for sero-surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and other emerging pathogens” is intended to investigate personal immune response to infection by SARS-CoV-2 virus. Each individual makes their own unique set of antibodies to COVID-19, this study investigates how these differences may impact an individual’s experience with the disease.
Serimmune has a proprietary technology for assessing immune response and the personal antibodies made by an individual. This technology, Serum Epitope Repertoire Analysis or SERA, allows us to measure the antibodies present in a specimen and map them back to specific locations, or epitopes, on the virus. We will use SERA to better understand your specific antibody response.
This means that you agree to contribute your information to the Serimmune research study. As a participant, we will ask you to do a few things. We have summarized the most important ones below. If you have more questions, you can contact us at covid19study@serimmune.com.
You will be asked to:
You are consenting to allow researchers to use your blood and associated health information to better understand the human antibody response to COVID-19 and other emerging novel and seasonal pathogens. We encourage participants to remain in the study for the full five-year period, however you may opt out at any time.
The assay we will perform is not intended to be used as a clinical diagnostic test. If you have had exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the research assay is designed to characterize the antibody profiles that we see against the virus and track how they develop over time.
You do not need to have been diagnosed with COVID-19 to participate in the study. We will run your sample and provide you with the results. If you are exposed in the future, this will tell us about your specific immune response.
If you are infected during the study, focus on getting well. Approximately two weeks after your symptoms started, we would appreciate a sample to test for your antibody response to this recent infection.
If you would like to provide this additional sample, you may request a blood collection kit by emailing us at covid19study@serimmune.com
Our technology may be able to tell you about your specific immune response to the vaccine and how it differs from the immune response to the native virus.
Email Serimmune at covid19study@serimmune.com for additional information.
We hope to better understand the antibodies that individuals make to SARS-CoV-2 and how this may be important for immunity, the duration of immunity, and for severity of symptoms.
Your personal identifying data will never be shared with third parties without your explicit consent; however, we may utilize your de-identified results in our research and technology development. A de-identified result is not tracible back to you personally. If you consent to participate in this study, we may only share your de-identified individual data and population level data with our research collaborators. Our collaborators are obligated to maintain strict levels of confidentiality for all data and will not have access to your personal identifiers.
All our data, when brought into our computing ecosystem, are disconnected from your contact and identifying information. Data are coded with a unique sample identifier (a sample ID) that does not contain any personal identifying information.
Our research is performed in a secure computing environment with access restricted to research scientists and system administrators. Our computers and servers are procedurally, electronically and physically protected and monitored and are monitored for unauthorized activity.
Your sample will be analyzed on Serimmune’s proprietary platform SERA or Serum Epitope Repertoire Analysis. Your sample may be stored frozen until the end of the study for re-analysis.
Absolutely. We are interested in the antibodies you may have made in response to infection.
Yes, this study is being conducted under oversight by WCG IRB study #1297772.