On Oct. 8, 2020, the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) announced it had been granted $1.4 million from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) to examine the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in study volunteers from Puerto Rico, where at least 75 percent of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino.

Latino Americans have been hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that Hispanic and Latino Americans have been hospitalized with COVID-19 at more than four times the rate of white Americans. This huge disparity can be linked to lower access to health insurance and health care, as well as a higher likelihood of exposure through essential jobs.

At the same time, researchers also want to know if Latino Americans may have immune system differences that sway how they respond to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Now LJI Research Assistant Professor Daniela Weiskopf, Ph.D., has been granted $1.4 million from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) to examine the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in study volunteers from Puerto Rico, where at least 75 percent of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino. The five-year project is part of NCI’s Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet), the largest coordinated effort to study immunology and COVID-19 in the United States.

The five-year project is part of NCI’s Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet), the largest coordinated effort to study immunology and COVID-19 in the U.S.