TransPop Launches New MURDOCK Study Cohorts in Response to COVID-19

In response to the pandemic, Duke TransPop launched the MURDOCK Cabarrus County COVID-19 Prevalence and Immunity (C3PI) Study in June 2020. This partnership with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services aims to understand the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community and to monitor the disease over time.

The MURDOCK C3PI Study follows the health and well-being of more than 1,400 MURDOCK Study volunteers to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affects them and their households. Researchers are especially interested in learning more about the behaviors of both symptomatic and asymptomatic people over time.

A sub-group of 300 volunteers are regularly tested for both COVID-19 infection and potential immunity to the novel coronavirus that causes the disease. Participants complete nasal swab tests at home every other week to detect COVID-19 infection, and serology testing is done at the Duke CTSI office in Kannapolis to detect antibodies that could indicate prior, potentially asymptomatic, exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and possible immunity. In December 2020, the MURDOCK C3PI Study also began a collaboration with the N.C. Wastewater Pathogen Tracking Research Network (WW PATH) and contributes data to the statewide research network monitoring the coronavirus in sewer systems, to help inform the public health response in North Carolina.

“We can quickly and efficiently engage the MURDOCK Study cohort and the team in Kannapolis to ask and answer important scientific questions, as in the case of COVID-19,” said L. Kristin Newby, M.D., principal investigator for the MURDOCK C3PI Study. “Participants are highly committed to helping move research forward and to helping their community. The MURDOCK Study is uniquely suited to respond, recruit, and generate data during this kind of public health emergency.”

Chris Woods, M.D., executive director for the Duke Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health, is co-principal investigator.

Volunteer Zenobia Fleming said she joined the study because she wants to help researchers better understand COVID-19 and feels that by participating, she is benefitting society.

“The more knowledgeable we are about what’s really going on, the better,” said Fleming. “The only way we will know is that people will come forward to do things to try to help.”

Fleming said she signed up for the study and committed to months of follow-up via testing and online surveys because she has lost friends and family members to COVID-19 and wants to be part of the solution.

Participant Aimy Steele expressed a similar desire. “My hope is that the research will help us make better decisions about how we move forward. And about how we will be prepared the next time in case something like this happens again,” Steele said.

In response to the pandemic, Duke TransPop also quickly stood up and managed the MURDOCK COVID-19 Opinions, Perceptions & Experiences (COPE) Study, a collaboration of Duke CTSI and the Duke Social Sciences Research Institute (SSRI).

The MURDOCK COPE Study surveyed more than 500 participants every other week for several months. The study followed how they felt in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and related events, how the pandemic and associated regulations affected them and their family, and how these perceptions and experiences changed over time. Alexandra Cooper, Ph.D., is the principal investigator, and L. Kristin Newby, M.D., is the co-principal investigator.

The MURDOCK C3PI and MURDOCK COPE studies are nested cohorts of the broader MURDOCK Study, a landmark community-based health research initiative in Cabarrus County with more than 12,500 participants. MURDOCK is an acronym that stands for the Measurement to Understand Reclassification of Disease Of Cabarrus and Kannapolis, and the study is based at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis.