Vaccine responses in people with lung transplants
Official title: Vaccination responses in lung transplant recipients
Funded at Stanford University · NIH-11158660 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how well COVID-19 vaccines trigger immune protection in people who have had lung transplants.
Quick facts
| Grant type | U01 cooperative agreement |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Stanford University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Stanford, United States) |
| Project start | August 5, 2022 |
| Project end | July 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $418,535 |
| NIH project number | 5U01HL163124-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11158660 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
People who have received a lung transplant and are followed at one of the participating transplant centers, especially those planning to receive or who recently received COVID-19 vaccination, are ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
People without a lung transplant or those unable or unwilling to provide biological samples or travel to a participating center are unlikely to benefit directly from this project.
What this research studies
If you’ve had a lung transplant, doctors in this project will collect blood and other samples before and after you get vaccines and store them in a vaccine biobank. Researchers will run detailed immune tests—measuring antibodies, cellular responses, and system-wide signatures—to map how your immune system reacts while on transplant medications. The effort joins patients seen at Stanford, Inova-Fairfax, and Houston Methodist so teams can compare results across centers. The overall aim is to understand why some lung transplant recipients have weak vaccine responses and to identify ways to improve protection.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Results could lead to better vaccine timing, dosing, or supportive treatments to increase protection for lung transplant patients.
How similar studies have gone: Recent reports show many solid-organ transplant recipients mount weak antibody responses to SARS‑CoV‑2 mRNA vaccines, and this project builds on those findings by adding deeper immune profiling and a centralized biobank.
Where this research is happening
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Stanford University
Stanford, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Nicolls, Mark Robert — Stanford University
- Study coordinator: Nicolls, Mark Robert
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
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Vaccination responses in lung transplant patients
This grant studies how people who have received lung transplants respond to COVID-19 vaccines and why their antibody responses may be limited.
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Understanding how lung transplant recipients respond to vaccinations
This study is looking at how well lung transplant patients respond to COVID-19 vaccines, since they might not make enough antibodies, and it hopes to find better ways to protect them through improved vaccination strategies.
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Exercise-based frailty program for people awaiting lung transplants
A tailored exercise and lifestyle program is being tested to reduce frailty and improve outcomes for people waiting for a lung transplant.
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Understanding why a lung transplant sometimes fails early and how to tailor treatment
A study of people receiving lung transplants to find molecular differences that cause early graft failure and point to better, personalized therapies.
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Targeting inflammation and alloimmunity in lung transplant recipients with clazakizumab
A study to see if blocking IL-6 with clazakizumab can improve survival and reduce rejection in people who have received a lung transplant.
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The Post-Lung Transplant Aging in Immune Cells in Donor Lungs
This grant explores how aging donor lungs affect lung transplant outcomes by studying immune cells called alveolar macrophages.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.