New COVID-19 blood study aims to predict how sick a person can get from the disease

(WIVB) — Doctors from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Catholic Health, University at Buffalo, and Thermo Fisher Scientific are all working together to create a new blood test.

The project is called Western New York Immunogenomic COVID-19 Study and they’re creating a test that could help identify people at risk of severe COVID infection.

The group plans to study blood from people who have had COVID-19 or who have died from it and then create a blood test. 

“This is a huge undertaking, a huge question that’s going to be constructive for the entire world,” said Dr. Kunle Odunsi of Roswell Park

It’s a one-time blood test that will predict how likely people are to get a severe or mild case of COVID-19. 

“We know some people don’t get sick at all, some get flu-like symptoms and are over it in a few days, some become very sick and even die,” said Dr. Carl Morrison. “And so, our study is focused on the fact that, if we can look at the cells using advanced technology that we can predict, that if you get infected or exposed to covid19 who’s not going to get sick, who’s going to get the usual flu-like symptoms and then who is potentially going to become very ill and possibly even die.”

The study will cost about $1 million, to help reach that goal $150,000 was donated from the 11 Day Power Play. 

Roswell is currently taking monetary donations earmarked for the Immunogenomic COVID-19 study. For more information, click HERE.

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