Valley research institute asking anyone who's had COVID-19 to become 'citizen scientists'

A Valley research institute is doing a COVID-19 immunity study requiring people to act as "citizen scientists," and on Nov. 24, the nonprofit made a big announcement.

An Arizona research center, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), is working on a study that's helping scientists come up with vaccines, and people who've had COVID-19 can help make a difference when they take part in this study.

With just two drops of blood for analysis, researchers are studying the antibody response to COVID-19 and what parts of the virus evolve over time.

Researchers say this information will be applied to vaccines.

TGen announced will be assisting City of Hope in Los Angeles with their brand new vaccine starting trial. This vaccine is unique because it reportedly stimulates T cell immunity.

T cell immunity could extend the protection so there may not be a need for a booster down the road.

With the help of those citizen scientists, they have already come across some promising findings.

"One of the interesting findings so far is that it looks like this virus is recruiting antibody responses that existed prior to the pandemic. There are circulating common cold viruses that we get every year. They are not as serious as this pandemic but they are similar enough to the pandemic virus that the antibody response may actually be recruited into a response," a researcher said.

To take part in this study and/or to learn more, visit this link.