Marcia Goldberg, MD

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing devastating numbers of illnesses and deaths. Most deaths result from severe inflammation in the lungs that impairs breathing and is associated with damage to multiple body organs. The current therapies that work are not dramatic cures, but rather improve the course of illness modestly. To enable the identification of new therapeutic strategies, a better understanding of the nature of lung inflammation is essential. We will define in detail the response of multiple types of inflammatory cells to COVID-19 infection in humans and then test the function of some of these cells in laboratory models of the type of lung inflammation that occurs in severe COVID-19. The more than 300 blood samples we already collected from patients infected with COVID-19 will enable us to carry out the studies quickly. The results from these studies have the potential to identify new targets for treatment.

Update: Our cohort of 306 COVID-19 infected individuals is one of the largest cohorts to date of predominantly hospitalized COVID-19 infected individuals. We have been able to associate immune cell states with disease severity, serving as the basis for investigation into the mechanisms underlying worse outcome in certain individuals.