Evelien Bunnik, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at UT Health San Antonio, was interviewed by the San Antonio Magazine about her work researching COVID-19.

Bunnik shifted her focus in April, working with an infectious disease physician to collect blood samples from over 100 recovered COVID-19 patients.

With those samples, Bunnik and her team wanted to know how long the patient’s blood would keep the antibodies that protect them from the virus and also how many B cells, which make the antibodies, remain in the body over time. “Your B cells will become memory cells and will respond quickly the next time you see that same pathogen,” she says. “It’s your second layer of defense and we want to see how many cells are present and whether they remain stable over time.”

Read the full article, “Evelien Bunnik.”