Genepod - International collaborations aim to provide genetic clues to COVID-19’s...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the challenges doctors are facing is the unpredictable course of the disease in different people infected with SARS-CoV-2. Some people have no symptoms, others have a flu-like illness, while others develop sometimes fatal respiratory or other organ failure. There is a growing understanding that genetics plays a role in determining the severity of illness. Fortunately, millions of human genomes are stored in biobanks and databanks all over the world and hundreds of international researchers with expertise in analyzing these datasets are eager to study the gene to disease links. Most importantly, perhaps, is the global research community coming together to collaborate in the effort to understand the genomic underpinnings of the susceptibility to COVID-19 infection. In this month’s podcast, Genetics in Medicine reached out to members of the genetics research community involved in the global initiatives to identify the genes that cause differences in susceptibility and outcomes to COVID-19: Mark Daly, PhD, director for the Institute of Molecular Medicine Finland and a member of the Broad Institute in Massachusetts, Kári Stefánsson, MD, founder and CEO of deCODE, and our own Deputy Editor, David T. Miller, MD, PhD, a medical geneticist at Boston Children’s Hospital. Together, these three discuss key methods involved in conducting genome-wide studies on a global level to understand differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection rate and severity. The hope is, these efforts will be vital for providing clues to pathways of viral infection and ultimately development of therapeutics and vaccines.