scientist-with-coronavirus-testing-tools
(Image: AAP/David Crosling)

Coronavirus has sent young, healthy people to the ICU with severe respiratory infections, and has claimed the lives of the elderly all the way down to a newborn. In Victoria, at least 10 people aged in their 20s are battling coronavirus in hospital.

Hoping to understand why COVID-19 affects some people so severely, while others don’t show symptoms at all, researchers have turned to gene sequencing to find out what makes the virus so dangerous.

What are we hoping to find out? 

The COVID Human Genetic Effort, a global research consortium created by US investigators, aims to look at genes that react to the coronavirus.