The Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) awarded 40,000 euros to the Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP) for the development of a project that aims to understand and characterize the transmission of infection by SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease. Entitled From SARS-CoV-2 infection to COVID-19. A study of viral kinetics and immune response to understand contagion and clinical evolution, the project was financed within the scope of the second edition of the special support “RESEARCH 4 COVID-19”.
Coordinated by Margarida Tavares, member of the Epidemiology Research Unit of ISPUP and the Emerging Infectious Diseases Unit of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João, the longitudinal study will follow individuals with a high risk of exposure to the virus and patients with COVID-19 (mild and severe), for about three months, to determine the period of contagiousness of the virus, its replication and viability, and to identify its clinical and immunological determinants.
In line with the objectives defined by this special support, the project is expected to influence public health measures and the individualization of COVID-19 treatment, adjusted to the severity of infection. It is intended to provide “original contributions to the determination of the potential for contagion in asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic and convalescent individuals, that are essential for contact screening policies and isolation measures”, says Margarida Tavares.
The Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João, the Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde and the Administração Regional de Saúde do Norte will also participate in the project, which is coordinated by ISPUP.
About “RESEARCH 4 COVID-19”
“RESEARCH 4 COVID-19” is an exceptional funding line to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, created by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), in collaboration with the Agência de Investigação Clínica Biomédica (AICIB). It aims to finance research and development projects and initiatives, already underway or to be developed, that fulfill the needs of the National Health Service (SNS), in its intervention in fighting the pandemic.
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