On September 19, the annual meeting of the international project UNDINE (“The human genetic and immunological determinants of the clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection: Towards personalized medicine") was held to learn about the factors related to the different manifestations of COVID-19. This project is funded by a European H2020 grant. This meeting, held in Vejle (Denmark), was attended by Dr. Pere Soler Palacín, head of the Pediatric Infectious Pathology and Immunodeficiency Unit of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and of the Infection and Immunity in the Pediatric Patient group of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) and coordinator of one of the work packages (WP1).

The aim of the UNDINE project is to decipher the human genetic and immunological basis of the different manifestations of disease by SARS-CoV-2 and to gain a broad understanding of the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 in order to identify individuals at increased risk of critical COVID-19, post-infectious immunological complications and vaccine failure. The project works to provide a basis for the development of diagnostic tests and propose new preventive and therapeutic approaches. "The involvement of professionals from different fields of research in the participating countries allows us to advance more quickly and share the findings in order to allow a direct benefit in healthcare practice", says Dr. Pere Soler Palacín.

At this meeting, the results of the first year of the project were presented, with the description of new genetic defects associated with severe forms of COVID-19 and also with multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in children and adults, as well as novelties in the detection of autoantibodies against interferons as the cause of severe COVID-19 at different ages. In addition, host-specific factors that have allowed so-called "resistant" individuals to avoid SARS-CoV-2 infection despite repeated exposure to the virus and genetic variants associated with prolonged COVID-19 continue to be investigated.

The Infection and Immunity in the Pediatric Patient group works, as part of the ICS node together with the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) and the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), in several work packages of this international project but mainly in WP1, led by Dr. Pere Soler Palacín and Dr. Isabelle Meyts from the University of Leuven in Belgium. This work package is dedicated to the establishment and follow-up of clinical cohorts used in all the experiments of the project, covering multiple clinical phenotypes related to SARS-CoV-2 infection.