The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR) has announced a ranking list of positively evaluated applications for funding under the initiative "Support for specialist hospitals in fighting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection and in treating COVID-19". Two applications with the participation of MCB as leader and partner were accepted for funding.
The initiative assumes the financing of scientific research and development activities carried out, among other things, by consortia of specialist hospitals and scientific institutions. The main objective of the initiative is to implement methods to prevent the spread of the infection or to fight the SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 disease.
The Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology, as a leader in consortium with the Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Interior and Administration in Warsaw, will implement a project entitled "Analysis of intestinal microbiome as a diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic factor in patients with COVID-19". The aim of the project is to determine changes in the composition and function of the intestinal microbiome and their correlation with the genotypic and phenotypic variability of SARS-CoV-2 virus and the prognosis and response to treatment in hospitalized patients. The project leader is Dr Tomasz Kościołek from Structural and Functional Genomics Lab. The research will also involve the Bioinformatics Research Group (headed by Prof. Paweł Łabaj), the Human Genome Variation Research Group (headed by Prof. Wojciech Branicki) and ViroGenetics - BSL3 Laboratory of Virology (headed by Prof. Krzysztof Pyrć). NCBiR will allocate more than 7 million PLN for the project, of which more than 6 million will go to the Jagiellonian University.
MCB will also become a partner in the project "Model of multi-specialist hospital and non-hospital care for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection" led by University Hospital in Krakow. On the side of the partner, the project will involve scientists gathered around the groups of Prof. Krzysztof Pyrć and Prof. Paweł Łabaj.