Microbial Pathogenesis & Infectious Diseases

Infectious Diseases and COVID-19

BRI researchers, in partnership with Virginia Mason clinicians, are studying the impact of COVID-19 to understand the immune response to the deadly virus. They are aiming to learn what predicts whether someone will have a good versus poor outcome when infected and how that will inform treatments and vaccines. The severity of an infection is in part dependent on the strength of a person’s immune system, since most people mount an immune response to the infection which kills or inactivates the pathogen. In this regard, the character of the immune response helps determine the consequences of a particular infection. And for some infections, an excessive immune response is actually bad, as it can cause symptoms such as high fever and inflammation, which have the potential to be more devastating than direct damage caused by a pathogen.