A genomic test being developed by a Charlottesville company can predict a patient’s risk of developing severe COVID-19, new research from UVA Health suggests. That information could help doctors identify patients at high risk for poor outcomes and quickly begin tailored treatment.
The approach proved more than 90% accurate at predicting outcomes among more than two dozen patients in the intensive care unit at UVA and 100 patients from publicly available data generated at Duke and Harvard. The test, called CovGENE, analyzes genes expressed in a person’s blood to determine whether they may experience a severe disease course with increased risk of death.
Based on the promising results of the UVA research, CovGENE’s developer, AMPEL Biosolutions, is seeking to partner with a diagnostic testing company or pharmaceutical company to bring the approach to market as a simple PCR-based blood test.
