Determining the Biomarkers of COVID-19 Outcome and Severity

Metabolon a biotechnology company based in Durham, North Carolina, has been selected by the NIAID to participate in a study on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The study is a part of the NIAID’s Immunophenotyping Assessment in a COVID-19 Cohort (IMPACC) research.

The program is being led by researchers at the Precision Vaccines Program (PVP) at Boston Children’s Hospital. The PVP is a collaboration of academics, government, and industry leaders who are working on advancing the next generation of vaccines for at-risk populations.

It features roughly 400 scientists and administrators around the world through the Precision Vaccines Network (PVN). The PVN employs systems vaccinology, human in vitro modeling, adjuvant discovery and development through human clinical trials.

The study is focused on researching how a SARs-CoV-2 infection effects the human immune systems response network, focusing mainly on determining the biomarkers of COVID-19 outcome and severity.

The study is supporting the PVP’s Clinical Data Collection Center (CDCC), assisting them in their efforts on integrating clinical data like sex, age, and the diseases severity and outcomes with biological data, including metabolomics.

A fundamental aspect to unlocking the genome using multi-omics research, a type of biological analysis, is Metabolomics. This approach aids in population health initiatives and helps in reaching the global goal of personalized medicine.

Metabolon will conduct research on global metabolomics using biological samples of serum from a population of approximately 1000 study participants. The company will collect samples from the participants and examine them across different time points, observing metabolic changes in the immune response to a SARS-CoV-2 infection over time. They will then correlate the data with the severity and outcome of a COVID-19 infection.

"It's an honor to collaborate with NIAID and participating researchers across the U.S. on the IMPACC study to assess and precisely characterize the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on health," Greg Michelotti, PhD, the scientific director of Metabolon, said . "Metabolomics provides a detailed snapshot of the phenotype, enabling deeper understanding of health and disease. The actionable metabolomics insights will help inform development of diagnostics, prognostics, therapeutics and vaccines to address the COVID-19 pandemic."