Many researchers have been seeking to better understand COVID-19 by investigating severe cases of the disease, but a new study launched by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Allen Institute for Immunology will look for unique insights by taking a different approach.
The Seattle-based research organizations are teaming to examine mild-to-moderate cases of COVID-19 — including some with no symptoms at all — with the goal of understanding the characteristics of an effective immune response to the disease.
They hope their findings will help doctors treat or prevent more serious cases, and provide new insights for scientists developing COVID-19 vaccines and therapies.
“As we’re learning, the overwhelming majority of patients with COVID actually have a much milder course. In fact, some patients are really asymptomatic,” said Dr. Troy Torgerson, director of experimental immunology at the Allen Institute for Immunology, in an interview this week. “We decided, for the general population, it probably makes more sense to try and understand what a healthy response to COVID-19 looks like.”
It’s the latest in a series of COVID-19 research projects and scientific initiatives in the Seattle area, reflecting the strength of the region’s life science and health technology community.
Adaptive Biotechnologies, for example, is using its immune sequencing platform in partnerships with Microsoft and Amgen in search of better COVID-19 tests and therapies. Researchers at the University of Washington and elsewhere are working on next-generation COVID-19 vaccines.
The Allen Institute for Immunology is part of the broader Allen Institute, started by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, which also includes the Allen Institutes for Brain Science and Cell Science.
The Fred Hutch and Allen Institute research project, announced Thursday morning, is also unusual in two other ways: First, it’s a longitudinal study, taking multiple blood samples from the same patients over time, and capturing the evolution of their immune response starting shortly after a diagnosis — or even before they get the disease.
That’s possible because the Fred Hutch team has been enrolling frontline health care workers and first responders at high risk of infection. The work is an extension of the Fred Hutch Seattle Vaccine Trials Unit, led by Dr. Julie McElrath, senior vice president and director of Fred Hutch’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division
The second unusual twist: Researchers at the Allen Institute will use a new system designed to generate a comprehensive assessment of the immune system by incorporating a variety of different tools for molecular and genetic analysis.
The deep immune system profiling pipeline, as it’s known, works with as little as 7 milliliters of blood, around a teaspoon or so of liquid.
“We take that sample, and in one day, we get a deep look — everything from whole genome sequencing, identifying the cells, looking at the activation state of those cells, to looking at the proteins that are in the blood, all in one fell swoop,” Torgerson said.
More than 100 people have been enrolled in the study so far, and researchers are seeking to enroll additional participants. Initial findings from the study could be available as soon as the end of the year.
