To fight a pandemic, collaboration is indispensable. Therefore, national genome researchers have joined forces to form the German COVID-19 OMICS Initiative (DeCOI). The aim: accelerate research into the virus and understand why some people become severely ill and others only mildly ill. Scientists at more than 40 institutions are actively involved in DeCOI.

„We are currently in the process of standardizing SARS-CoV-2 sequencing protocols at all major sequencing centers in Germany in order to determine viral genomes in a wide variety of regions across the country,” said Prof. Dr. Alexander Dilthey, head of the CECAD Bioinformatics facility in May 2020. He is coordinating the viral genome research activities within the German COVID-19 OMICS Initiative (DeCOI). With the help of multi-omics analyses, it can be quickly and comprehensively determined which biological processes are triggered in the disease itself and how these can be positively influenced by drugs.

DeCOI researchers are involved in large international consortia to determine, among other things, the distribution of receptors on the body’s cells that are thought to be responsible for the entry of SARS-CoV-2. The aim is to find out which immune cells are involved in processes that occur particularly in patients with severe courses of the disease, in order to identify new therapeutic options for this.