A UK-wide platform is stitching together fragmented COVID-19 antibody data from hospitals, GP surgeries, and research labs so that scientists can analyse it securely and at speed. The problem is urgent. Hundreds of thousands have died, and no one yet knows whether recovered patients with antibodies are protected from reinfection, or for how long. The data that could answer this exists, but it is scattered across dozens of unconnected sources, collected using different standards. This patchwork makes it nearly impossible for public health teams to find and use the high-quality information they need during a fast-moving pandemic. CO-CONNECT will standardise how antibody data is captured across the UK and build a secure infrastructure that allows researchers to analyse de-identified datasets from multiple sources without moving or exposing the raw data. If it works, the platform will answer fundamental questions about immunity duration and patient outcomes. That knowledge could directly shape decisions about who to protect, when to relax social distancing, and how to manage transmission. The project is not speculative fundamental science—it is a practical infrastructure fix designed to deliver actionable answers during an ongoing health emergency.
View original technical description
CO-CONNECT is a collaborative project and it has four CO-PIs: Jefferson (Dundee), Sheikh (Edinburgh), Hopkins (PHE) and Quinlan (Nottingham). The current COVID-19 pandemic has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, severely strained health systems and damaged economies across the world. At this time there is limited evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection and if so, how long that lasts. Understanding who is immune is vital to protect vulnerable individuals, to safely scale back population-based interventions and for managing disease transmission. The data which can help us to answer these key questions have been collected across the UK by a range of research groups and within clinical primary and secondary care settings. As this is a new disease, the standards for antibody data capture are in their infancy so some of the details need to answer the key questions are not being captured systematically. The fragmented landscape of data means that it can be challenging for public health groups and researchers to find and access the high-quality data they need at pace. We will: - Standardise antibody data collection across the UK - Configure an infrastructure which enables trustworthy, fast, de-identified, secure analysis of data sets from across multiple sources - Answer key questions about immunity to COVID-19 and the implications for patient outcomes.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know