Åsa Torinsson Naluai leads one project that investigates immunity to COVID-19. The project, which will receive around 1 million Swedish krona, is a collaboration between Biobank Core Facility and Biobank West. The goal is to be able to contribute with more knowledge about the biological mechanisms that cause some people to be severely affected by the virus while others hardly show any symptoms.
- For many years researchers have tried to understand what causes common diseases such as diabetes, but we have not yet found a clear answer. If we now understand more about this particular Corona virus it may also lead us to explanations that we could not have imagined, and help us to develop evidence for new interpretations on other diseases as well, says Åsa Torinsson Naluai.
The project will look at antibodies in the blood and viruses in saliva, and in throat and nose samples from patients who come to Sahlgrenska University Hospital. The first samples will be analyzed by August 2020 at the latest.
- We will be able to create a unique patient cohort of both asymptomatic, mild and severe cases of SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals. Based on this, we can then, for example, identify genetic variation in connection to the severity of SARS CoV-2 infection, says Åsa Torinsson Naluai.
