If we can predict who might be in danger of a severe COVID-19 case, we can focus prevention and potentially treatment on those who might need it the most.
Earlier this week, the biotech company GoodCell announced a program with the New York Blood Center to study how genetic variations in the blood can contribute to COVID-19 severity.
GoodCell offers personal biobanking, which allows customers to withdraw and store blood cells so they can potentially be used for treatments in the future, like CAR-T or stem cell therapy.
- As part of that service, GoodCell has developed genetic tests to assess the quality of the donated cells, including certain mutations that are connected to an increase in risk for cardiovascular disease through abnormal inflammation.
- Many severe cases of COVID-19, especially in younger patients, featured an inflammatory overreaction called a cytokine storm.
- « We found parallels between patients getting sick from cytokine storms and the accumulated genetic changes connected to cardiovascular disease, » says Salvatore Viscomi, chief medical officer at GoodCell.
