Research from Concepción receives first place in XLII Chilean Congress of Internal Medicine

The award-winning research was entitled "Analysis of the systemic and proteomic inflammatory response associated with pulmonary sequelae in patients with prolonged COVID-19", and had the participation of researchers of MELISA Institute.

Dr. Gonzalo Labarca during the award ceremony.

The research "Analysis of the systemic and proteomic inflammatory response associated with pulmonary sequelae in patients with prolonged COVID-19" obtained first place in the category of "best research works" of the XLII Chilean Congress of Internal Medicine held earlier this month by the Medical Society of Santiago. The study was developed by a team of researchers from the Universidad de Concepción led by Dr. Estefanía Nova-Lamperti, and included the participation of researchers from MELISA Institute, Dr. Cristian Vargas, CEO of the Core Facility Proteomics & Genomics, and Mauricio Hernández, CLO of the Proteogenomics Laboratory.

The investigation consisted in the preparation of a cohort of patients who presented COVID-19. From this cohort, two groups of 10 patients were made up: one who presented pulmonary sequelae, and the other who did not present sequelae of this type. Serum samples from these patients were analyzed by flow cytometry to see inflammatory factors and then by proteomics to identify massively and systemically which were the altered pathways and, probably, associated with the presence of sequelae.

In this work, the contribution of MELISA Institute involved, among others, the massive analysis of serum proteins on the Bruker Daltonics timsTOF Pro mass spectrometry platform through quantification by DIA-PASEF (Data Independent Analysis). For Dr. Gonzalo Labarca, internist, post-doctorate at Harvard Medical School and member of the group of researchers, the collaboration of the MELISA Institute “was key, since it allowed to join the clinical, inflammatory and proteomic pathways that were related to the findings of sequelae. pulmonary ”. Likewise, he added, "without them, the compromised pathways could not have been identified more precisely".

Workflow used in the investigation.

It should be noted that the Medical Society of Santiago is a scientific organization founded in 1869 and that brings together specialists in different branches of medicine, especially internal medicine. As a result of the above, it is not only the oldest national medical society in the country, but one of the most important. In relation to this, Dr. Vargas stressed that "obtaining this recognition is undoubtedly an event that reaffirms the scientific and investigative capacities in our area by integrating teams that work in an interdisciplinary manner".