Genomics of COVID-19: A Collaboration with the International COVID Human Genome Effort Consortium

Led by Christen Ebens, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics; and Meghan Rothenberger, MD, associate profesor of internal medicine, researchers in this study will use genomic sequencing to identify rare single gene variants associated with poor outcome in patients 50 years of age and younger without known risk factors for COVID-19. They will collect basic clinical information and blood samples from affected patients and, when possible, their first-degree relatives. Their collaborator, Megan Cooper, MD, PhD, at the Washington University McDonnell Genome Institute in St. Louis, MO, will complete genomic sequencing of de-identified samples from severe COVID-19 patients and first-degree relatives in the context of the large, international consortium The COVID Human Genome Effort. Ebens and Rothenberger say identifying host genetic factors associated with susceptibility to this novel pathogen and worse COVID-19 outcomes can provide insight into the human immune response to SARS-CoV2, and highlight molecular pathways that could be targeted to COVID-19.