Paul Bastard, M.D., Ph.D.
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH | Imagine Institute (University of Paris and INSERM) | Rockefeller University (New York, USA)
Grand Prize Essay: Why do people die from COVID-19?: Autoantibodies neutralizing type I interferons increase with age
Abstract:
Although millions of people have suffered from life-threatening COVID-19, the course of infection has been benign in many more individuals.
Aging is the major risk factor for life-threatening disease, the risk doubling every five years from childhood onward. What are the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying such vast and age-dependent clinical heterogeneity?
The COVID Human Genetic Effort recruited patients with all clinical outcomes, ranging from silent infection to lethal disease. Dr. Bastard and his team searched for both inborn errors of immunity (IEI) and auto-immune phenocopies of these IEIs.
They found IEIs affecting type I IFN and auto-Abs neutralizing type I IFNs as being causative of life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia in about 20% of cases.
These auto-Abs pre-exist infection and increase sharply in those over 65 years old.
About Paul Bastard:
Paul Bastard, MD, PhD, is currently working as a chief resident in the Department of Pediatrics at the Necker Hospital for Sick Children (AP-HP, Paris, France), while also doing research in the Necker branch of the laboratory of Jean-Laurent Casanova, located at the Imagine Institute (University of Paris and INSERM) and the Rockefeller University (New York, USA).
His research focuses on the genetic and immunological determinants of severe viral diseases, including the causes and consequences of autoantibodies against type I interferons.