The 2020 Marathon dedicated to COVID-19 funds an IRBLleida project

The project 'A systems biology approach to understand COVID-19 pathophysiology and predict outcome (SISTEMA-BIO-COVID)' led by the researcher, David de Gonzalo, from the Translational Research in Respiratory Medicine group at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Lleida (IRBLleida) has been chosen among the 36 projects to be funded by the Marató 2020 dedicated to COVID-19. The project will be carried out in collaboration with the researcher, Jesús Francisco Bermejo Martín, from the Fundación Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Salamanca (IBSAL).

In the 2020 edition, dedicated to COVID-19, 229 projects were submitted, which were evaluated by 95 international scientists specialising in this field in terms of their quality, methodology and relevance. The evaluation was managed by the Catalan Agency for Health Quality and Evaluation of the Catalan Ministry of Health. In accordance with the proposal of the Fundació la Marató de TV3's Scientific Advisory Committee, the Board of Trustees agreed to distribute €12,469,544.83 among the 36 projects.

The project presented by de Gonzalo aims to identify biomarkers that predict the worsening of patients hospitalised with COVID-19 and to evaluate the connection between immune responses, viral replication and the biological consequences of COVID-19. The research will study 600 patients with COVID-19 admitted to different hospitals: Arnau de Vilanova University Hospital in Lleida, Santa Maria University Hospital in Lleida and Rio Hortega Hospital in Valladolid.

"Our project will try to identify molecular clues that may help to understand why patients with severe COVID-19 cannot control the virus and sometimes lead to severe respiratory failure and complications such as thrombosis observed in these patients," explained the researcher.