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Yassine believes that this allowed researchers to build their capabilities in this field and prepared them to quickly begin work on the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The accumulated experiences, from working with other similar viruses, like influenza and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, meant we were ready for virus outbreak scenarios, he said.

We already had laboratories that can accommodate such research. We had techniques in place for genomic sequencing. We have also developed the capabilities of students working in the laboratory to analyze the samples.

The center also launched a study to identify genetic factors that increase the risk of the Covid-19 infection or of more serious complications from the infection among certain population.

I am trying to look at the picture from the host side rather than the virus side, Maria Smatti, a Ph.D. student and research assistant at the center, said. We have the genomic data and the disease severity. We will try to correlate this information to see the common genes between people who have severe Covid-19 disease compared to those who have milder disease.

This allows researchers to identify which population could have more severe symptoms due to genetic susceptibility. Clinicians and public health officials could then take special precautions to protect those who are particularly vulnerable to the disease.

Smatti said that previous studies had already found genes related to immune responses to viruses similar to the new coronavirus, but her work is broader as she is not only focusing on these known genes. Rather, she will check all mutations that correlate with the severity of Covid-19 infections.

The research is a collaboration between the center and Qatar genome program, in addition to being a collaboration with researchers and clinicians from Genomics England, which seeks to sequence 100,000 human genomes, and Imperial College London.

We have access to more than 15,000 genomes of the Qatari population and to the data of 100,000 genomes from U.K. populations, Smatti said. We started looking into the data from Qatar Genome [which has the genomes of Qataris] and expect to finish this phase of the research by the year end.

Yassine says that there is an established vision to develop scientific research in Qatar, but the Covid-19 disease has pushed the project forward.

As we are faced with a real outbreak now, this is an opportunity to gain firsthand experience and build our capacity to combat any new virus or emerging disease that appears in the future, he said.

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Genetics and Artificial Intelligence Drive Qatar University's Covid-19 Research - Al-Fanar Media