Description:

Title: Functional Immune Memory Forms in Response to Mild-COVID-19 
 

Speaker: Marion Pepper, PhD / University of Washington

Host: Booki Min, PhD

Topic:

Early spring 2020, my lab pivoted from our ongoing studies of immune memory to parasitic and bacterial infections to help decipher the quality and persistence of memory lymphocytes that can form in response to mild COVID-19. We found that despite suggestions of rapidly waning immunity, a robust and diverse immune response consisting of both memory T and B cells formed and was maintained for at least 3 months post-symptom onset. Importantly, we demonstrated that RBD-specific memory B cells increase over the time of the study and gain diversity in their receptors suggesting ongoing germinal centers.  I will discuss these findings and our broader findings regarding how different populations of memory B cells can form and respond to a subsequent infection.