StemCell Therapy

AURORA, Colo. Aside from age and underlying health issues, scientists believe the answer to a lot questions about COVID-19 and how it affects people differently could be in their genes.

A researcher at the University of Colorado School of Medicine is on the forefront of finding out more, KDVR reported. Hes helping lead an international team to learn if genetics plays a role into why some people with the coronavirus get severely ill and even die, while others have no symptoms.

We think that variation in genes controls how we respond to SARS-Co-V-2, said Dr. Paul Norman, an associate professor in the Division of Biomedical Informatics and Personalized Medicine and a principal investigator at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Norman, along with about 600 researchers in 45 countries, is part ofThe COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative. Its a collaborative scientific effort to generate, share, analyze and data to learn more about the coronavirus.

In Colorado, Norman is sending a questionnaire to 140,000 people who are part of theColorado Center for Personalized Medicine Biobank. His goal is to look at the genetic makeup of people who have had COVID-19 to see if theres a connection.

He and other researchers are also getting data from23andMe, an at-home genetic test, and theNational Bone Marrow Registry.

Researchers have discovered genetic connections with HIV, malaria and the SARS virus from 2002 and 2003.

There are variances that dont make you less susceptible, but they make your immune response better, Norman said.

If researchers discover genetic variances with the coronavirus, they could ultimately help develop a drug to treat it and a vaccine to prevent it.

The Biobank is accepting participants for the COVID-19 and other studies. Learn more about ithere.

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Why do some people get so sick from COVID-19? The answer may be in your genes - fox4kc.com

This entry was posted on May 26, 2020 at 11:46 am and is filed under Personalized Medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |