{"id":37395,"date":"2021-01-28T13:04:02","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=37395"},"modified":"2022-02-22T09:57:24","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T16:57:24","slug":"why-does-covid-affect-people-differently-researchers-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/why-does-covid-affect-people-differently-researchers-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers ask: Why does COVID-19 affect people differently?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Researchers are trying to determine why COVID-19 affects individuals differently. Photo: Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A major research initiative on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus<\/a> is making the fight against the novel coronavirus personal.<\/p>\n

The effort, which aims to accelerate research into the roots of COVID-19, launched a major data set called COVIDome<\/a> in a matter of months. Its source material is blood samples from patients who tested positive for COVID-19 and controls whose tests were negative. Through the COVIDome Explorer<\/a> portal, researchers can analyze (see box below) <\/em>the samples from a broad variety of biological perspectives.<\/p>\n

The goal: identify specific patterns \u2013 changes in proteins, red blood cells or immune response, for example \u2013 that can illuminate the mechanisms underlying the diverse ways COVID-19 affects people. Why does COVID-19 affect people differently? With that information and the ability to compare it to patients untouched by the disease, researchers and clinicians aim to design targeted treatments to patients, based on their unique characteristics.<\/p>\n

The motto of the COVIDome Project sums up that approach: \u201cNothing in the study of COVID-19 makes sense except under the light of precision personalized medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why does COVID-19 affect people differently?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cCOVID-19 is not one entity,\u201d said Dr. Joaquin Espinosa<\/a>, Professor of Pharmacology<\/a> and executive director of the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome<\/a> at the University of Colorado School of Medicine<\/a>. Espinosa is a COVIDome principal investigator and project leader. \u201cIt manifests itself in very different ways in every individual. In order for us to make a difference in care, we need to understand how COVID-19 affects different people.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question that has been one of the great puzzles of the disease, Espinosa noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have 100 people infected with the same virus, you have a wide range of outcomes,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery person is different. Some will not get sick at all, some will die, and everything in between. What are the mechanisms driving this massive diversity?\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing under the dome<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Espinosa describes COVID-19 as a unique \u201cdata ecosystem\u201d that allows research on many fronts by specialists with a variety of skill sets. It\u2019s an open system that encourages researchers to collaborate and broaden their perspectives about the disease.<\/p>\n

The raw material for the COVIDome Project comes from the University of Colorado COVID-19 Biobank<\/a>, launched in March 2020 as a repository of COVID-19-positive blood samples for research under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Flaig<\/a>, Vice Chancellor for Research and Professor of Medicine<\/a>\u00a0at CU Anschutz. Flaig works alongside Espinosa as COVIDome principal investigator and project leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a remarkable effort and example of research collaboration,\u201d Flaig said. \u201cThe productive outcome of this work is especially noteworthy considering the challenging nature of interacting with COVID-positive study participants, and the cooperation between the clinical teams and laboratories in this time of the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Inside the COVIDome<\/strong><\/p>\n

The COVIDome Explorer portal offers researchers access to a range of data sets they can use to analyze components of blood samples from the COVID-19 Biobank.<\/p>\n