VIBRANT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Vaccine Immunity Breakthrough & Re-Infection – ANtibody & T-cell
IRAS ID
305992
Contact name
Paul Klenerman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford / Research Governance, Ethics & Assurance
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Whether or not there is lasting immunity to COVID-19, induced by either vaccination or natural exposure, is a critical outstanding question in this pandemic. If the current vaccines deployed in the UK fail to generate sufficient lasting immunity to either interrupt transmission or take the burden off acute health services, it will be essential to study which measurable immune factors correlate with protection. This knowledge will form the basis of second-generation vaccine design and implementation policies, and will also inform future lockdown, shielding and vaccination policy, by identifying who is protected from re-infection and who is not.\n\nA key component to developing this understanding why some people experience vaccine breakthrough infections (new infections 14 days or more after their second COVID-19 vaccine), two or more infections (3 or more months apart) or fail to mount an antibody response following vaccination or natural infection. Understanding the mechanisms underpinning these events of interest, requires clinical, immune and genetic assessment and testing which will be undertaken by the VIBRANT study and collaborators within the wider SIREN consortium. \n\nVIBRANT will investigate for known and unknown underlying health conditions through a clinical health screening questionnaire and clinical sampling. VIBRANT will also investigate immune and genomic signatures or biomarkers that are associated with vaccine failure. To do this VIBRANT will integrate with several national platform studies (UK-CIC, SIREN, ISARIC4C/PHOSP, COG-UK, and HICC) which are collectively addressing the question of whether immune responses contribute to protection against re-infection.\n
REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/HRA/5433
Date of REC Opinion
20 Dec 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion