Mission
The COVID-19 host genetics initiative brings together the human genetics community to generate, share and analyze data to learn the genetic determinants of COVID-19 susceptibility, severity and outcomes. Such discoveries could help to generate hypotheses for drug repurposing, identify individuals at unusually high or low risk, and contribute to global knowledge of the biology of SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease.
Objectives
The COVID-19 host genetics initiative is a bottom-up collaborative effort that has three main aims:
Aim 1: Provide an environment to foster the sharing of resources to facilitate COVID-19 host genetics research (e.g. protocols, questionnaires).
Aim 2: Organize analytical activities across studies to identify genetic determinants of COVID-19 susceptibility and severity.
Aim 3: Provide a platform to share the results from meta-analytical activities to benefit the broader scientific community.
News
June 02, 2020
Webinar 3: 5/29/2020 9:00pm EDT / 1pm GMT / 2pm BST Agenda: 1. Welcome & updates Speakers: Mark Daly & Andrea Ganna (FIMM) [Slides] 2. Phenotype definitions v2 Speaker: James Priest (Stanford) [Slides] Reading: Phenotypes v2 3. Analysis update Speaker: Ben Neale (Broad Institute) [Slides] 4. Lightning talks presenting early results Speakers: Nick Manusco (USC) [Slides] Lea Davis (VUMC) [Slides…
May 17, 2020
Updated results and summary statistic downloads are now available from the (still small but growing!) COVID-19 GWAS meta-analysis. Analyses this time include severity, susceptibility and COVID-19 associated symptoms. Results are downloadable at https://www.covid19hg.org/results/ As a reminder, these results are based on phenotype definition V1 and analysis plan V1 Thanks to early contributing…
May 15, 2020
The paper describing the initiative has been published on the European Journal of Human Genetics and available open access: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41431-020-0636-6
May 07, 2020
Webinar 2: 5/07/2020 4:00pm EDT / 8pm GMT / 9pm BST Agenda: Welcome & updates Speakers: Mark Daly (FIMM) & Andrea Ganna (FIMM) [Slides] Study curation & QC Speakers: Karolina Chwiałkowska (Medical University of Bialystok) & Margherita Francescatto (University of Trieste) [Slides] Ongoing studies and early results Speakers: Kári Stefánsson (deCODE) Alessandra Renieri (University of Siena) [Slides…
April 30, 2020
We have released the first round of meta-analysis results here. We want to thank the participating studies: - UK Biobank (analyzed by Danny Wilson, Konrad Karczewski, Tomoko Nakanishi and Manuel Rivas) - Finngen (analyzed by Juha Karjalainen) - Genes and Health (analyzed by David Van Heel) - Lifelines (analyzed by Patrick Deelen) - BioMe biobank (analyzed by Arden Moscati) Although we don’t pose…
April 20, 2020
The second call had more than 400 participants! Given the positive response during the call and multiple groups sharing early GWAS analyses on Slack, we aim to launch a first meta-analysis later this week. The broader analysis plan being developed is available here and we would expect to make available the first meta-analysis summary statistics immediately. We discuss two approaches in regards to…
April 17, 2020
9:00am EDT / 1pm GMT / 2pm BST Agenda: Welcome & updates (10min) Speakers: Mark Daly (FIMM); Andrea Ganna (FIMM) Data storage & sharing discussion (5min present; 10min Q&A) Speakers: Thomas Keane (EMBL-EBI); Anthony Philippakis (Broad Institute) For reference Data Sharing FAQ Phenotypes discussion (5min present; 25min Q&A) Speakers: Lea Davis (Vanderbilt); Mark Daly (FIMM) For reference…
April 09, 2020
There are more than 100 studies participating to the initiative and we have launched a now portal to allow exploring studies research questions and foster collaborations. Next week we will start distributing a pilot analysis plan.
March 30, 2020
On Friday, 27th of March we had the first call for data contributors. We have > 180 participants and very useful discussion. We are working on establishing a "matchmaking" area, where different study can connect to each other according to their research questions. We are also working on defining a set of core phenotypes to bring forward to discussion and analysis. We have established a new…
March 25, 2020
The new website is live with more information and a new updated map of the partners.
March 19, 2020
The collaboration with ICDA will help to reach the broad human genetics community and to organize the effort.
March 18, 2020
The Rivas lab is making available a github repository with several relevant human genetic resources: https://github.com/rivas-lab/covid19
March 18, 2020
Thanks to everyone for reaching out. We will organize soon a call with those interested in providing data.
March 16, 2020
University of Siena has received ethical approval for sample collection. For more informations visit the wesbite: https://sites.google.com/dbm.unisi.it/gen-covid