Marc A. Martí Renom, ICREA Research Professor and Strucutral Genomics Group leader at CNAG-CRG, will lead efforts to identify the genetic determinants that underlie the variation in severity for people with Covid-19. Working alongside Ángel Carracedo (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela) and Pablo D. Lapunzina (Instituto de Investigación Hospital Universitario La Paz), the team will use an ‘omnigenic’ approach that leverage the three-dimensional arrangement and interaction of genes, to identify the potential biomarkers of severity that could be used to assess people’s individual susceptibility to the disease.

At the same time, our understanding of the specific interactions that allow viral entry in different types of cells remains limited. A lot of scientific research uses systems that lack the complexity of human tissue, which is composed of different cell types, each of which likely express different molecules relevant for viral infection. Comprehensive knowledge on the molecular biology of viral entry and how it affects different cell types would help the development of new ways of both preventing and treating infection.