COVID-19 survivors sought to solve reaction puzzle

The University of Queensland is calling for Australians who have suffered from COVID-19 to participate in a study to understand why different patients have varied reactions to the virus.

University of Queensland Professor Naomi Wray and her daughter Ellen, who previously had COVID-19. Picture: Glenn Hunt

Queensland researchers need the help of Australians who have had COVID-19 to uncover one of the big mysteries of the pandemic: Why are reactions to the virus inconsistent across patients?

A new study, conducted by the University of Queensland (UQ), aims to discover why there are differences in the severity and symptoms between patients.

Professor Naomi Wray, from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience and Queensland Brain Institute, hopes the analysis will help find new treatments to manage the virus.

“People with COVID-19 get very sick because they’ve got other comorbidities, but you also have to wonder about people who get really sick but are usually quite healthy,” she said.

“Our research goal is to get information on the breadth of symptoms to understand the differences between people and in symptoms and then map those to the differences in their DNA.”

Professor Wray has issued a call-out for former COVID-19 patients to participate in the study.

The first person to put up their hand? Her daughter, Ellen.

The PhD student, 24, caught COVID-19 while on a trip to the UK in March last year. Now, 12 months on, she still hasn’t fully regained her sense of taste or smell.

Participants will be required to share details about their symptoms at the time of infection, and then at three-month intervals following. They will also need to get a blood test at their local pathology lab so researchers can analyse their DNA and antibodies.

“By measuring levels of antibodies, we can gain insights into how our bodies are tackling the virus – we think that the type of antibodies that you have in your blood influences how sick you get,” UQ immunologist Larisa Labzin said.