Short title: Long-term SARS-CoV-2 Specific Memory B cells
Constantin J. Thieme1*, Mohamed Abou-el-Enein1,2,3*, Enrico Fritsche1, Moritz Anft4, Sarah Skrzypczyk4, Adrian Doevelaar5, Magdi Elsallab1,3, Nicola Brindle1, Krystallenia Paniskaki6, Felix S. Seibert5, Oliver Witzke6, Timm H. Westhoff5, Ulrik Stervbo4, Guido Heine7*, Toralf Roch1,4*, Nina Babel1,4*
1Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies, and Institute of Medical Immunology, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353 Berlin, Germany
2 Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, and Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA USA
3Cell therapy program, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, and Children Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), Los Angeles, CA USA
4Center for Translational Medicine and Immune Diagnostics Laboratory, Medical Department I, Marien Hospital Herne, University Hospital of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Hölkeskampring 40, 44625 Herne, Germany
5Medical Department I, Marien Hospital Herne, University Hospital of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Hölkeskampring 40, 44625 Herne, Germany
6Department of Infectious Diseases, West German Centre of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany
7Department of Dermatology and Allergy, University Hospital Schleswig Holstein, Arnold-Heller-Straße 3, 24105 Kiel, Germany
*equal contribution
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Acknowledgments: We are grateful to the patients who donated their blood samples and clinical data for this project. We would like to acknowledge the excellent technical assistance as well as the expertise of the immune diagnostic laboratory of the Center for Translational Medicine at Marien Hospital Herne. N.B. received funding from the Mercator Foundation, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) e:KID (01ZX1612A), and BMBF NoChro (FKZ 13GW0338B). MA received funding from the Arab German Young Academy (AGYA), a project by the BMBF.