When the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic reached Europe, ADAPT Centre researcher Bruno Andrade at Munster Technological University, partnered with other researchers and international collaborators to study how the composition of microorganism that live in the upper respiratory tract changed in the presence of the virus using state-of-art machine learning and computational biology approaches. The findings, which were recently published on the open access platform MDPI and Frontiers in Microbiology, highlighted that the presence of beneficial bacteria in the respiratory tract may favourably influence the response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The discovery is an important first step in the prevention or treatment of the respiratory infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 and
Speaking about the research, Bruno Andrade said: “With recurring waves of COVID-19 infections worldwide it is of paramount importance that we look at ways to prevent or reduce the severity of infections. Using state-of-the-art machine learning and computational biology approaches we have been able to identify bacteria with probiotic properties that can reduce the viral load in humans. This research is significant because it provides insight into how we can take steps to get the virus under control at a global level.”
The full research paper is available online at MDPI and Frontiers in Microbiology.
