PREDCOV - Blood test to predict the severity of COVID-19

COVID-19 is an unpredictable disease. As of May 2020, around ~ 4% of those infected had to be admitted to hospital. Of those, ~19% required intensive care and ~18% died. Vaccines, better treatment and the omicron variant have contributed to the fact that the prognosis for COVID-19 has improved significantly, but it is still challenging to know in advance who will get a serious illness. In this project, we have discovered an epigenetic pattern that can distinguish patients with severe COVID-19 disease from those with a mild course, with a high degree of accuracy. We have investigated that the pattern correlates well with the severity of the disease, in more than a thousand patients distributed across the USA, the EU and Norway. We have further developed our discovery in the form of a prototype where we have shown that the pattern can easily be measured on laboratory equipment found in normal hospital laboratories. We are now working with commercial partners to set up a full-scale test in a clinical laboratory. The project has been a collaboration between the newly started diagnostics company Age Labs, the Institute of Public Health, Oslo University Hospital and Bærum Hospital.