Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers across Rutgers University have played an important role in understanding the virus and exploring potential treatments for those diagnosed. An important question remains: Why do some people experience respiratory and cardiovascular distress, while others have no symptoms at all? A new study led by Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the Gift of Life Marrow Registry seeks to answer this question by checking how different versions of immune-vital genes screened for transplant matching may shape who develops or resists COVID-19. The study is being conducted in collaboration with Root, a scientific company that helps interpret genetic variation.

The Gift of Life Marrow Registry is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, that facilitates bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood-related diseases. In the study, more than 350,000 potential bone marrow donors in Gift of Life’s registry will be invited to take the survey on whether they have had COVID-19 and if so, what symptoms and treatments they received.

“The study aims to learn whether genes fundamental to the immune system (known as Human Leukocyte Antigens – HLA)  and other genes help explain why some people avoid COVID-19, while others develop severe symptoms or respond to particular treatments,” said the study’s principal investigator Jeffrey Rosenfeld, PhD, manager of the Biomedical Informatics Shared Resource at Rutgers Cancer Institute and assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “We’re excited to add key data to the fight against COVID-19, to help clinicians better understand how the human immune system responds to the virus.”

Gift of Life CEO Jay Feinberg added, “We have a responsibility to do our part to help the world understand and ultimately overcome this virus. Gift of Life is pleased to be collaborating with Rutgers Cancer Institute and Dr. Rosenfeld on this very important study.” And Root's founder, geneticist Nathaniel Pearson, PhD, noted, “Because transplant registries read tissue match genes better than consumer DNA tests do, a study like this can best reveal how such immune-vital genes may shape COVID-19. Gift of Life's members have long helped save cancer patients — and now they show how everyday people can help the world tackle a pandemic too.

For qualified and willing participants, follow-up surveys will be administered for up to one year. Over that time, researchers will study how participants develop or avoid COVID-19, develop particular symptoms, or benefit from particular treatments. This data will be analyzed to find any associations of tissue match genes with such outcomes.