About STRAVINSKY
STRAVINSKY stands for ‘Stratification of Clinically Vulnerable People for COVID-19 Risk Using Antibody Testing’.
What are the aims of STRAVINSKY?
COVID-19 has disproportionately affected individuals with certain health conditions that affect their immune system. Despite vaccination and new drugs, these people continue to have a higher risk of hospitalisation and death than the general population if they fall ill with COVID-19. Over the next two years, STRAVINSKY aims to build our understanding of who is most clinically vulnerable to COVID-19 infection and identify individuals or disease groups at highest risk. Using this information, STRAVINSKY will be able to assess the effectiveness of any upcoming booster vaccine programmes or new treatment strategies for these patients as well as respond if significant new COVID variants are detected.
The STRAVINSKY study aims to provide doctors, policymakers, and members of the public with up-to-date information on the impact of COVID-19, and future COVID-19 booster vaccinations, on people who are immune vulnerable. It will investigate whether an antibody test result can predict an individual's risk of severe COVID-19 infection.
Who’s involved?
STRAVINSKY is funded by National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). It brings together researchers from 12 UK universities and hospitals, all with expertise in treating patients with different conditions that affect how their immune systems function. The project is led by researchers from University of Birmingham (Professor Alex Richter), University of Southampton (Dr Sean Lim), University of Oxford (Professor Eleanor Barnes) and Imperial College London (Dr Michelle Willicombe).
Alongside the research team, STRAVINSKY is also setting up a Participant Involvement Panel to advise and guide STRAVINSKY researchers through providing open, honest feedback and reflections on the research priorities as well as perspectives and thoughts on implications of the research on the wider public and in the context of other emerging COVID-19 research and policy.
STRAVINSKY is also supported by the British Society for Immunology, who look after the public involvement and engagement and communications work.