Cardiff University: against COVID-19 ^University

1.
The Cardiff team are supporting the project 'COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium' through the use of the MRC CLIMB node hosted at Cardiff, which will provide computational capacity for analysis and data storage for the consortium. The bioinformatics and sequencing staff in the School of Biosciences are also working as part of the PHW Pathogen Genomics effort to manage, sequence and analyse SARS-COV-2 samples collected in Wales.
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/

Contributors:
Dr Tom Connor, Reader, School of Biosciences, Cardiff University and Consultant Bioinformatician/Pathogen Bioinformatics Lead, Public Health Wales NHS Trust
Dr Anna Price, Research Software Engineer (Supercomputing Wales and CLIMB-BIG-DATA)
Joel Southgate, Research Student, School of Biosciences
Advanced Research Computing at Cardiff / Supercomputing Wales

2.
Genomics Partnership Wales (GPW)
http://www.walesgenepark.cardiff.ac.uk/genomics-partnership-wales/

In July 2017, the Genomics for Precision Medicine Strategy was launched by Vaughan Gething, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, and sets out Welsh Government’s ambitious plan “to create a sustainable, internationally-competitive environment for genetics and genomics to improve health and healthcare provision for the people of Wales”.
Genomics Partnership Wales (GPW) – Partneriaeth Genomeg Cymru – has been formed to establish a united approach to genomics in Wales and represents a number of organisations across several disciplines coming together to deliver a programme of work that will enable the ambition and commitment laid out in the Genomics Strategy to be realised.
Key organisations include Welsh Government, the All Wales Medical Genetics Service, Wales Gene Park, Public Health Wales, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Higher Education Institutions in Wales as well as other stakeholders and collaborators.

The project is part of the global "The COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative"
https://www.covid19hg.org/partners/

Affiliation: Cardiff University, Wales Gene Park, All Wales Medical Genomics Service, MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, SAIL databank (Swansea University) and NHS
Research question: How does variation in the human genome contribute to COVID-19 susceptibility and disease severity?
Study design: Genomics Partnership Wales, Wales Gene Park, and the All Wales Medical Genomics Service are collaborating with colleagues from Cardiff University Division of Infection and Immunity, MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, and the SAIL databank (Swansea University). We will undertake genomic analysis (SNP genotyping and whole genome sequencing) of patients with severe COVID-19. The genomic data will be linked to pathogen genomes, transcriptomics, immune phenotyping and health outcome data, with the aim of contributing to national and international efforts to understand the host genomic determinants of COVID-19 susceptibility and severity.
Study Type: Prospective
Genetic analysis: WGS; GWAS
Assays planned: Viral sequencing, Transcriptomics, Immune profiling
Investigators: Andrew Fry, Julian Sampson, Sian Morgan, Ian Tully, Michaela John