The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) and the IU Grand Challenge Precision Health Initiative are establishing COVID-19 as a special disease state within precision health.
As a first step, all researchers interested in, or already conducting COVID-19 research, should complete the following brief RedCap survey. This will allow a streamlined and prioritized approach to COVID-19 research, while also encouraging strategic collaborations that may further enhance the ability to secure external research funding.
Treating COVID-19 as a disease, along with the five other diseases that are already included within the initiative, will allow utilization of the precision health scientific pillars to help answer some of the many unanswered questions surrounding COVID-19. Specifically, the genomic medicine pillar will provide whole exome sequencing and RNA transcriptomics of certain COVID-19 research samples. The data and informatics pillar will store data utilizing the precision health cloud. Indiana CTSI cores, such as the access technology core, will also be used to help generate data on cytokine/chemokines. The goal of this special disease state will be the same as the overall goals of the IU Precision Health Initiative — to find treatments, cures and even preventions for COVID-19, along with multiple myeloma, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, triple negative breast cancer and pediatric sarcomas.
