Methodology

  • The Long COVID project, coordinated by Helsinki University Hospital (HUS), aims to understand mechanisms of LCS by combining front-line expertise from the fields of clinical medicine, virology, metabolism, and immunology.
  • The Long COVID project will also develop and apply a machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI)-informed Long Covid Prediction Support (LCPS) tool to predict and stratify the LCS patients.
  • To decipher the mechanisms underlying LSC, the project will study the pathogenesis of LCS (1) by conducting geographically diverse cohort and registry studies, (2) by conducting mechanistic studies, (3) by using novel high-throughput methods for biomarker analysis, and (4) by conducting interventional and follow-up studies on LCS patients.

Photo credits: Pexels

  • Additionally, an interactive graphic user interface infographic will be available to clinicians and patients; this will communicate novel and understandable information about LCS and recommendations for patient management.
  • Long COVID combines a broad range of scientific and technical approaches to empower clinicians to better manage patients with LCS at an early stage.

Photo credits: istockphoto.com

  • The cohort and clinical studies will be conducted at Helsinki University Hospital (HUS), University Hospital Basel (USB), and the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG):
  • Finland
    Cohort 1 – Registry linkage cohort from the Finnish National Centre for Health and Welfare (NCHW)
    Cohort 2 – LC policlinic – HUS
    Cohort 3 – ClinCOVID Cohort – UH
    Cohort 4 – ICU Cohort –UH
  • The Netherlands
    Cohort 5 – Lifelines – Dutch population cohort (UMCG – Groningen)
  • Switzerland
    Cohort 6 – Basel LC Syndrome Cohort (BALCoS) – UNIBAS

Photo credits: unsplash.com

  • The mechanistic studies will be conducted at the University of Helsinki (UH), Finland and the University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland. A variety of biomarkers will be analysed by several partners: lipidomics analyses will be conducted by Lipotype GmbH (Germany), genomics analyses by the Finnish Institute of Molecular Medicine (part of University of Helsinki, Finland), antibody epitope screening by Protobios Llc (Estonia), and metabolomics of the CSF and blood by University of Helsinki. Interventional studies on biopsychosocial parameters will be conducted at two sites, HUS and UNIBAS.
  • Nuromedia GmbH will perform data management and estimate ML models. NEC (Germany) will develop AI models as well as algorithms. Regulatory and GDPR-related issues will be solved by Chino.IO (Italy). The project outcome and results will be disseminated and exploited by Steinbeis Europa Zentrum GmbH (Germany) in close collaboration with preexisting EU-spanning networks. Finally, the project management will be performed by Spinverse Oy (Finland).

Photo credits: istockphoto.com

Data & Methods

COHORT STUDIES

  • Clinical
  • Demogaphics
  • Physiological
  • Neurological
  • Neuropsychological
  • Socio-economic

Mechanistic STUDIES

  • Virological
  • Serological
  • Immunophenotyping
  • Platelet and coagulation activity
  • Invitro studies (animal modells & iPSCs)

TRANslational Biomarkers

  • Genomics (GWAS/HLA)
  • Proteomix
  • Lipidomics
  • Immunological
  • Microbiome analysis
  • Metabolomics

Interventional STUDIES

  • HUS Digital
    Interventional study 1
  • UNIBAS Digital
    Interventional study 2
    (VCS study)

ML & xAI Prediction Models

DATA COLLECTIOn, HARmoNIZATIOn & INTEGRATION

Outcomes

Long Covid Prediction Support

EOSC
data sets

BIOMARKER PREDICTION –
PATIENT STATIFICATION

Clinician – Patient work
IDENTIFY LCS PATIENTS

Recommendations
& Patents

Figure 1 Project scope & outcomes. This figure explains the overall project scope, data and methods used and the main outcomes. EOSC European open Science cloud.