Indiana University has announced a $12.5 million investment from #startsmall, an initiative created by Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, and the Chase and Stephanie Coleman Foundation in support of a nationwide study on COVID-19 infection and reinfection and the potential for long-term immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease.

Running through 2021, the Aegis Study will enlist twenty-one hundred participants from multiple locations and researchers from the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington and Department of Biology in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences in an effort to capture critical information about COVID-19 and answer the key question of how long the immune system can protect individuals from the virus after they have been infected. Data collected by the study also has the potential to inform vaccine development and distribution, policies for safe reopening, and individual choices about what constitutes safe behavior in a pandemic.

"Indiana University is extremely grateful for the generous financial support for — and opportunity to lead — this landmark public health study," said IU president Michael A. McRobbie. "Through this study, leading public health researchers from IU and around the country will seek to capture critical information about the evolution of COVID-19 and answer the key question of how long the immune system can protect individuals from the virus after they have been infected. As such, this study promises to have important implications for the effectiveness and longevity of a vaccine for the virus."

(Photo credit: James Brosher)