Human COVID-19 challenge study published in Nature

How does the body respond to SARS-CoV-2, and what happens if you don't get infected after exposure?

In this exciting work that wraps up Rik’s post-doctoral work, we unraveled the exact timeline of the cellular responses to inoculation with SARS-CoV-2 in humans.

By applying single cell multiomics to a unique SARS-CoV-2 human challenge model, we uncovered the identity and timeline of the local and systemic immune responses to viral exposure. We used this approach to uncover a multitude of both fundamental and translational insights into the way our immune system functions to protect us against viral infections when there is no immunological memory available yet. We also had the unique opportunity to also study the immune responses that prevented infection after viral exposure, as more than half of these seronegative participants did not develop a sustained infection upon exposure.

Highlights of our work include dozens of novel time-restricted response states, including unexpected timing of interferon signalling, new innate responses in unexpected cells and in non-infected cases, identification and application of new activated T cell populations, and lower HLA-DQA2 expression as predictor for sustained infections. But, there are many more cool findings that can be found in our manuscript.