2020-21 SAEMF COVID-19 Research Grant - $25,000

"Nasopharyngeal Microbiome and Clinical Outcomes in Patients with COVID-19”

The community of micro-organisms that inhabit the human nasopharynx, known as the nasopharyngeal microbiome, is known to interact with respiratory viruses and influence how the host initially responds to infection and potentially influence disease course. How it interacts with SARS-nCOV2, the virus that causes COVID19 is may have important effects on the virus ability to establish a productive infection and host’s response to the virus. We hypothesize that there will be changes in the nasopharyngeal microbiome associated with active COVID-19 infection and that some nasopharyngeal microbiome features will predict progression to severe disease.