SARS-CoV-2 T Cell Immunity
In collaboration with Charite (Prof. Andreas Thiel) the T Cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination was systematically analyzed. For the first time, this revealed the presence of SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells not only in patients with COVID-19 but also in healthy donors (Braun et al., Nature 2020). Upon vaccination with BNT162b2, strong T cell immunity was developed with a kinetics that resembled that of secondary immune responses. Furthermore, a universal immunodominant coronavirus-specific peptide epitope (iCope) was identified (Loyal et al., medRxiv 2021).