Simon Schade studies medicine at the University of Bonn in the 6th semester. Since December 2020 he works in the COVID-19 lab of the Institute of Innate Immunity under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Latz and Dr. Susanne V. Schmidt as medical doctoral candidate. In his experimental dissertation entitled „Correlation of Neurofilament proteins in peripheral blood of COVID-19 patients with loss of olfactory and gustative senses“ he investigates, if the loss of these functional senses is correlated to the degeneration of neurons. The study also aims to monitor the neurofilament concentration in the recovery phase of COVID-19 in correlation to the duration needed, to restore olfactory and gustatory systems. Concentrations of neurofilaments and other neuron specific proteins will be measured with highly sensitive immunoassays run on platforms like the SIMOA HD-X and Meso. Further, it will be investigated how other neurological symptoms correlate to increased concentrations of neurofilaments in peripheral blood.
