Project to investigate the impact of Sex and Gender on COVID-19-outcomes funded

Prof. Dr. med. Dr. sc. nat. Cathérine Gebhard, chair of the course directors of the CAS in Sex- and Gender-Specific Medicine, investigates the impact of Sex and Gender on COVID-19 outcomes. The Swiss National Foundation supports the project “Impact of Sex and Gender on COVID-19 outcomes: Role of ACE-2, TMPRSS2, and gender-specific risk factors” (Project), submitted by Gebhard together with Prof. Dr. med. Beatrice Beck Schimmer, one of the initiators of the CAS, CAS-lecturer Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Vera Regitz and colleagues.

The gender disparities observed in COVID-19 vulnerability clearly emphasize the need to understand the impact of sex and gender on incidence and case fatality of the disease so that treatment in highly vulnerable demographic groups can be timely and tailored to their specific needs. The project will combine clinical data from ongoing cohort studies with retrospective experimental work in mice with. This strategy allows rapid analysis of data and implementation of results. The work will identify both, biological sex- and gender-related predictors of severe variants of COVID-19 and has the potential to contribute to the identification of effective antiviral interventions.