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Molecular understanding of COVID-19 pathogenesis in human blood vessel organoids

Grant number: unknown

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Key facts

  • Disease

    COVID-19

  • Start & end year

    2020
    2021

  • Known Financial Commitments (USD)

    $54,500

  • Funder

    WWTF Austria

  • Principal Investigator

    Josef Penninger

  • Research Location

    Austria

  • Lead Research Institution

    Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA)

  • Research Priority Alignment

    N/A

  • Research Category

    Clinical characterisation and management

  • Research Subcategory

    Disease pathogenesis

  • Special Interest Tags

    N/A

  • Study Type

    Non-Clinical

  • Clinical Trial Details

    N/A

  • Broad Policy Alignment

    Pending

  • Age Group

    Not Applicable

  • Vulnerable Population

    Not applicable

  • Occupations of Interest

    Not applicable

Abstract

Penninger's laboratory made breakthrough discoveries in ACE2, its critical in vivo role as a SARS receptor and its role in protecting multiple tissues from organ damage. ACE2 is also the critical receptor for SARS-CoV2, the cause of COVID19. The first data were recently generated showing that SARS-CoV2 can infect blood vessel organoids. In order to understand fundamentally the SARS-CoV2 infections of blood vessels, it is now proposed to investigate the cytotoxicity of the virus and the gene expression profiles of infected blood vessels in individual cells in vitro and in vivo, with and without soluble ACE2.