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Minnesota Republicans cite natural immunity in debate over COVID vaccine mandates

Star Tribune- 01/23/2022
Dr. Marc Jenkins is interviewed in the Star Tribune story about the debate over natural immunity and vaccine mandates. "Natural immunity can be very potent but it can also be not so potent, and that depends on the level of the initial infection," Jenkins said. "Because of that, and in the absence of a robust antibody testing program, it's best to try and get people to very high levels of protection through vaccination."
 

University of Minnesota research backs vaccines after COVID-19 cases

Star Tribune - 10/1/2021
Dr. Marc Jenkins, from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, published research that backs vaccines for those who had a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. The study, published in Cell Reports, shows that people with prior infections who received the two-dose mRNA vaccination had five times more memory B cells — a better immune response — compared to those who received the same vaccination but were never previously infected.
 

Why mixing vaccines could help boost immunity

David Masopust highlights the promise and potential issues of mixing vaccines and vaccine types over time in a May 6, 2021 piece by Cassandra Willyard from MIT Technology Review. Read here
 

What's Next in COVID Vaccine? Research at the University of Minnesota looks for new ways to fight the virus

The March/April 2021 issue of Minnesota Medicine Magazine interviewed Drs. Susan Kline and Marc Jenkins about the development of vaccines and subsequent distribution and what the future will look like as COVID research carries on.  Dr. Jenkins talks about the current vaccine projects that several labs within CFI  are currently working on to protect against COVID and any future forms of the virus.  Read the entire article written by Linda Picone here
 

Bold hopes for virus antibody tests still unfulfilled

“Everyone’s impatient and I can see why...But there’s no easy path to this knowledge” about immunity.  Dr. Marc Jenkins talks with Matthew Perrone, AP news and published in The Washington Post on September 7, 2020 about the ongoing studies of vaccine production, antibody testing and the standard nasal swab tests that diagnose active infections. Click here to read the full article.
 

Covid-19 vaccine: why do we develop permanent immunity with some diseases and not with others? (and the big question mark about the coronavirus)

The question now is what will happen to SARS-CoV-2: will permanent immunity to covid-19, the disease that causes the new coronavirus, be possible? To find the answer, we must observe what happens inside our body. Here's what two immunologists - one in the United States, one in Europe - say about the issue and why the vaccine is key to achieving immunity. Read what Dr. Marc Jenkins tells Lucía Blasco from BBC News Mundo in an article from 8-17-2020.
 

UMN research could help inform future COVID-19 vaccines

The Minnesota Daily's Madeline Deninger writes about how Dr. Marc Jenkins and other members of CFI have been working to understand how the body develops antibodies once it has been infected with COVID-19. Click here
 


The Wall Street Journal answers Facts and Myths About Coronavirus Antibody Tests

Drs. Amy Karger and Marc Jenkins provided factual information to The Wall Street Journal about antibody tests—blood tests designed to detect who was previously infected with the new coronavirus and have developed antibodies to it. Click here
 

University of Minnesota launches COVID-19 antibody test

The lab of Marc Jenkins, Regents and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the Medical School and director of the Center for Immunology, has developed a COVID-19 antibody test that will be available first to frontline health care workers in M Health Fairview’s Bethesda Hospital. Fang Li, an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, was among the first to publish a peer-reviewed article in Nature detailing the underlying structure of COVID-19. On March 21, Li provided protein material to the Jenkins Lab, and work began. Click here
 

USA Today ponders social distancing in the lab

Dr. Marc Jenkins is quoted in a USA Today story about scientists continuing to work on essential projects while socially distancing in the lab. 
 

COVID-19 Vaccine on fast track

The Star Tribune's Christopher Snowbeck and CFI's Director Marc Jenkins talk about "a whole new approach to vaccines" using viral RNA instead of the way current vaccines are produced using a weakened or killed form of a virus to stimulate an immune system response that produces antibodies.  To read the entire Star Tribune article click here.

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