July 2021: The COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative (HGI) formed a global network of researchers to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity.
We know the genetic make-up of an individual contributes to the susceptibility and response to viral infection. Although environmental, clinical, and social factors have a role in the chance of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and the severity of COVID-19, host genetics may also be important.
Read about the discoveries of this work, “Mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19’ in nature
Here, the results of three genome-wide association meta-analyses that consist of up to 49,562 patients with COVID-19 from 46 studies across 19 countries are described. The discoveries made by GenOMICC are included in this study.
We directly contributed evidence of a large amount of signal (the evidence for the DNA changes), mainly because we focus on researching individuals with such severe illness.
