A new tool that can uncover the developmental history of certain immune cells is now freely available worldwide. The tool provides insights into the stages that immune cells go through in a healthy individual and how this can be impacted in disease.
News Article by the Communications Team 20 Apr 2021
Using data from the Human Cell Atlas, researchers have identified the differences in immune cells’ response in those who had no symptoms compared to severe symptoms.
The largest study of its type in the UK has identified differences in the immune response to COVID-19, between people with no symptoms, compared to those suffering a more serious reaction to the virus.
Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Newcastle University, University College London, University of Cambridge, EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and their collaborators within the Human Cell Atlas initiative, found raised levels of specific immune cells in asymptomatic people. They also showed people with more serious symptoms had lost these protective cell types, but gained inflammatory cells. These differences in the immune response could help explain serious lung inflammation and blood clotting sympto