COVID-19 GenOMICC-GENOMICS ENGLAND PARTNERSHIP

GenOMICC (Genetics Of Mortality In Critical Care) is a global collaborative study to understand the genetic basis of critical illness. For the GenOMICC-Covid-19 programme there are several key inter-related studies currently being undertaken: Genomics England/GenOMICC (GeL/GenOMICC), led by Kenneth Baillie, Edinburgh 1. Overall investment is provided by DH, NIHR Bioresource (in kind), UKRI (MRC) and LifeArc. Objectives: Using whole genome sequencing (WGS), to investigate genetic links to patients severely affected by Covid-19 in: a. 20,000 severely affected individuals: (requiring admission to intensive care) compared with 15,000 mildly affected unaffected individuals. b. Up to 1000 trios (mother/father/affected individual): severely affected younger (under 40) individual with no other underlying health conditions to look for rare variants. 2. UKRI's funding contribution (up to £1.5m) is targeted towards 1b, in partnership with NIHR BioResource (recruiting and phenotyping, in kind contribution of £1m). Additionally, UKRI's funding is supporting progress towards the GeL target of WGS of 4000 under 50-year olds. 3. Short-term deliverables are identification of genetic variants associated with severe symptoms (e.g. recent publication Genetic mechanisms of critical illness in Covid-19). Risks include delays due to recruitment (e.g. depending on timing of a 'second wave'), and delivery, to be addressed through mile-stoning of outputs by the funders.