Video

Dr. Kulasinghe on Identifying COVID-19–Associated Gene Signatures Through Spatial Transcriptomics

Arutha Kulasinghe, PhD, discusses identifying COVID-19–associated gene signatures through spatial transcriptomics.

Arutha Kulasinghe, PhD, a Faculty of Health at the Queensland University of Technology, discusses identifying COVID-19–associated gene signatures through spatial transcriptomics.

During the recent AACR Virtual Meeting on COVID-19 and Cancer, findings were presented regarding spatial transcriptomics to better understand the tissue biology of COVID-19, Kulasinghe says. This strategy was used to analyze autopsy samples collected from patients with COVID-19 who were from Brazil.

Investigators analyzed samples of pulmonary COVID-19 tissues and compared them with samples of specimens collected that were during the H1N1pdm09 virus outbreak, as well as tissue samples from healthy lungs, Kulasinghe explains. Through this work, a number of genes and gene signatures that appeared to be associated with COVID-19 were identified. Some of these markers can potentially be utilized to assess disease severity in this patient population, Kulasinghe concludes.

Related Videos
Prithviraj Bose, MD, and Chandler Park, MD, FACP
Eunice Wang, MD, and Chandler Park, MD, FACP
Michel Delforge, MD, PhD, professor, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Hematology, director, member, Leuven Cancer Institute, member, Senior Academic Staff, Council of the Faculty of Medicine, Council of the Department of Oncology, University Hospital Leuven, University of Leuven
T. Jeroen N. Hiltermann, MD, of University of Groningen
Benjamin Besse, MD, PhD, of Institute Gustave Roussy
Natasha B. Leighl, MD, BSc, MMSc, of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Yi-Long Wu, MD, PhD, of the Guangdong Lung Cancer Institute, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital (Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences), Southern Medical University
John Seymour, MBBS, FRACP, PhD
Suzanne Trudel, MSc, MD
Consuelo Bertossi, MD