Name: TRACK-COVID

Principal Investigators: Professor John Danesh and Professor Emanuele Di Angelantonio

Leading institution or organisation: University of Cambridge (Department of Public Health and Primary Care)

HDR Innovation Gateway Metadata Rating: Silver

The TRAC-COVID study aims to provide a better understanding of the biological and environmental risk factors of COVID-19, by looking into why some people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus show symptoms (are symptomatic) and why others do not (are asymptomatic).

To do this, TRACK-COVID is monitoring the data of approximately 20,000 people from across England. This is done in two phases. In stage 1, participants were asked complete short monthly surveys for 12 months. In the second stage, some of these volunteers were asked to provide biological (blood) samples on a monthly basis for another 12 month period.

The purpose of the second stage is to identify what proportion of the population has been infected with the virus by testing for antibodies in their blood. It also looks at how long these potential antibodies remain in the body, and how effective they are at preventing future infections.