PrecisionLife and Metrodora Foundation announce key genetic findings for long COVID across diverse populations

Oxford, UK, and Salt Lake City, USA, 26 February 2025 – PrecisionLife, a leading computational biology company, in collaboration with the Metrodora Foundation, has announced the successful replication of key genetic associations related to long COVID in a diverse US patient cohort. This study confirms and extends previous findings from a UK-based study, underscoring the potential for developing precision diagnostics and targeted therapies for long COVID and related chronic conditions.

In this groundbreaking study, 45 out of 51 (88%) genes previously identified by PrecisionLife in UK patients were also found to be associated with long COVID in an independent US cohort. Notably, 11 out of 13 genes with potential for drug repurposing were reproduced, highlighting promising candidates for rapid validation in clinical trials.

Steve Gardner, CEO of PrecisionLife, said:

Confirming that we can reproduce long COVID genetic risk factors across populations with different ancestries is a crucial step forward for understanding the disease. These findings redefine our understanding of the genetic components of long COVID, laying the foundation for precision medicine approaches that could revolutionize care for millions. They also provide strong support for the use of combinatorial analytics to find exciting new opportunities for precision diagnostics and the accelerated development of targeted therapeutics in complex, chronic diseases that affect billions of lives.

The replication of these genetic associations across diverse populations provides robust evidence of the underlying biology of long COVID. These insights pave the way for refining diagnostic criteria, developing more accurate diagnostic tools, and exploring therapeutic targets for long COVID, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and related chronic conditions.

This study demonstrates the unique capability of AI-led combinatorial analytics in understanding the genetic mechanisms underpinning complex diseases. By identifying specific genetic risk factors, PrecisionLife and the Metrodora Foundation are advancing the development of precision medicine approaches to address the significant unmet medical needs of patients suffering from long COVID and similar debilitating conditions.