The ORCHESTRA General Assembly took place on 9 May. The work package leaders presented and discussed work in progress, achievements and further steps. Over 80 members of the ORCHESTRA Consortium Partners joined the Assembly, as well as representatives from the project's Stakeholders, the Advisory Panel, and the Ethics Board, who actively participated by sharing their valuable feedback and suggestions.

ORCHESTRA proudly presents a vast variety of research results at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), held from April 15-18, 2023, in Copenhagen, Denmark. The project's contributions cover a broad range of topics related to COVID-19, reflecting the project's wide scope of research.

“Integrative modelling of reported case numbers and seroprevalence reveals time-dependent test efficiency and infectious contacts” is a Work Package 8 study conducted under the lead of Helmholtz Center Munich for the modelling and LMU Munich for the data collection. First author Dr. Lorenzo Contento, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bonn, gives answers about the study.

“SARS-CoV-2 Breakthrough Infections: Incidence and Risk Factors in a Large European Multicentric Cohort of Health Workers” is a study conducted within Work Package 5 (WP5), which is led by Prof. Paolo Bofetta, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna. The answers were given by his team Mahsa Abedini, Giulia Collatuzzo, Giorgia Ditano, Ludovica Leomanni, Marika D’Agostini, Shuffield Seyram Asafo and Adelajda Matuka.

“Temporal trends of COVID-19 antibodies in vaccinated healthcare workers undergoing repeated serological sampling: An individual-level analysis within 13 months in the ORCHESTRA cohort” is a study conducted within Work Package 5 (WP5), which is led by Prof. Paolo Bofetta, Department of...

We are excited to share that our team for Work Package 8 - "Statistic Modelling and Analysis" recently had an amazing in-person scientific retreat in Paris. This was an opportunity for us to connect and collaborate face-to-face after months of remote work.

“Determinants of Anti-S Immune Response at 9 Months after COVID-19 Vaccination in a Multicentric European Cohort of Healthcare Workers—ORCHESTRA Project” is a study conducted by ORCHESTRA partner University of Bologna and was performed within Work Package 5 “The Healthcare Workers Cohort”.

ORCHESTRA study „Impact of Omicron Variant Infection on Assessment of Spike-Specific Immune Responses Using the EUROIMMUN Quan-T-Cell SARS-CoV-2 Assay and Roche Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2-S“ shows that different tests perform differently with different variants. The publication was performed by Work Package 3 under the lead of ORCHESTRA partner Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU). Christina Reinkemeyer, LMU project manager and co-author of the study gives answers.

Antwerp, 09.02.2023, "Host immunological responses facilitate development of SARS-CoV-2 mutations in patients receiving monoclonal antibody treatments" is a study showing several significant immunological findings: patients treated with various monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) develop escape spike mutations in SARS-CoV-2 where an anti-inflammatory and pro-healing host milieu facilitates development of such mutations...

Host immunological responses facilitate development of SARS-CoV-2 mutations in patients receiving monoclonal antibody treatments" is a study showing several remarkable findings: Patients receiving monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatments for COVID-19 can develop mutations in the virus, and an anti-inflammatory and pro-healing environment in the body can also cause mutations. Furthermore, the scientists developed a score…

The Partners Meeting in Verona, Palazzo Verità-Poet,a on 21 and 22 November 2022 was a wonderful opportunity to discuss first results of the project and to meet for the first time in person. More than 150 researchers and experts from all over Europe and beyond, as well as representatives from the European Commission (EC), the European Centre for the Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) attended the Partner Meeting.

Healthacare workers usually represent the working group of society – yet they are highly exposed. ORCHESTRA is researching on how they can be better protected. At the same time research on healthcare workers provides scientists with important information on immunity and immune status. “SARS-CoV-2 and Its Variants in Thrice-Infected Health Workers: A Case Series from an Italian University Hospital” is a study that ...

Finding the threshold value in antibody assay after SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection in fully vaccinated healthcare workers Knowing the trend of the antibody level in the human blood to SARS-CoV-2 is particularly significant in understanding the immune response against the virus. The ORCHESTRA study “Usefulness and Limitations of Anti-S IgG Assay in Detecting Previous SARS-CoV-2 Breakthrough Infection in Fully Vaccinated Healthcare Workers” investigated if the anti-S IgG assay can be used as indicator for previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.  Gianluca Spiteri and Maria Grazia Lourdes Monaco, occupational physicians of Occupational Medicine Unit at the University Hospital of Verona, are first authors of the study and explain what the team - associated with ORCHESTRA Work Package 5 (WP5 – the Healthcare Workers Cohort) – researched.

This publication has been performed by Work Package 2. This publication was produced by Work Package 2. The responses were given by Maria Giulia Caponcello, Clinical Research Associate, Servicio Andaluz de Salud, SAS.

The “ORCHESTRA Core Data elements for COVID-19" (OcDeC), which is a core data set of standardised variables for use and future use with the goal to simplify the merging of data and to increase metadata quality, is the result of the joint efforts undertaken by the ORCHESTRA team lead by BIH_Charité Home - Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (bihealth.org).The "Development of OcDeC within ORCHESTRA" has now been shortlisted for the Interoperability Award 2022: Interoperability Award 2022 - X-eHealth. The Interoperability Award is part of the European Union project X-eHealth (X-eHealth - Exchanging Electronic Health Records) that aims to bring forward e-Health in Europe for an international benefit. After the evaluation by an international jury, and out of a total of 19 applications from 10 countries (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Switzerland), 13 projects were chosen to be candidates fort the award. All 13 projects have achieved significant work in the field of health digitalisation.

The ORCHESTRA podcast is intended to contribute to highlighting different aspects in research. Each podcast will have different guests from different professional backgrounds, each sharing experience, learnings and knowledge from their specific perspective. Episode 1 gives an overview of ORCHESTRA - with a quick run through the different work packages - and its mission . Prof. Evelina Tacconelli, head of ORCHESTRA, talks about benefits, challenges and how her team from the University of Verona convinced her to apply for the E.U. Horizon2020 research project on COVID-19 - which has become ORCHESTRA: a multidisciplinary European and international research infrastructure sharing tasks, expertise and efforts for the benefit of COVID-19 patients.

The study examined the most determining causes for exhaustion of frontline and second line healthcare workers (HCW) during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Responsible ORCHESTRA partner is the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Bucharest which contributes to Work Package 5, the Healthcare Workers Cohort. Prof. Marina Otelea, is one of the authors and explains results and impact.

We are hiring!

If you are a research enthusiast, you are welcome to contribute your talents and expertise in ORCHESTRA. We are looking for Medical Doctor or Clinical Researcher and Clinical Research Associate.

1. Medical Doctor or Clinical Researcher
You will be responsible for: • Development of research protocols and standard operating procedures (SOPs) as planned for the ORCHESTRA project in its role as coordinator • Ensuring adherence of protocols with national and European ethics standards; - monitoring of the progress of the project, providing strategic supervision of the research activities and ensuring that the milestones, the deliverables and the results of the project are respected in accordance with the established timeline and the contractual requirements. • Cordinating scientific publications deriving from the project in accordance with the Grant Agreement contract and Consortium Agreement • Contributing to the statistical analysis of surveillance data

The study was carried out through the collaboration of three ORCHESTRA partners, the University of Bologna (UNIBO), the University of Verona (UNIVR) and the Service Andaluz de Salud (SAS), and is one of the systematic reviews developed for Work Package 2, Task 2.2, led by SAS. It was published in Clinical Microbiology and Infection.

Dear Scientists and Researchers,

You are invited to participate in the ORCHESTRA Science Challenge. We offer you a customised, anonymised dataset of high-quality patient data from our international cohorts to find answers to your COVID-19-related research question. An ORCHESTRA committee assesses the scientific suitability of the research project and ensures that accepted participation is handled in compliance with the publication policy. The research topics are: Fragile population Therapy algorithms Vaccination efficacy Please formulate your own research question, which should be: Concise Relevant Beneficial Evaluation criteria will include: Quality of the research question Study conduct Thoroughness and scientific standards Impact Novelty The enrolment period starts after the summer holidays. We wish to give you enough time to fit the Science Challenge into your schedule. The Challenge itself starts on 01 September, due date for submitting your work will be 15 October. Accredited study groups of scientists are eligible. The jury consists of ORCHESTRA members.

With kind regards on behalf of the entire ORCHESTRA team, Work Package 10