On Apr. 23, 2020, two significant international studies involving hundreds of scientists, including a human geneticist at the TGen, an affiliate of City of Hope, suggested that specific cells in the human nasal passage shaped like a champagne glass, known as goblet cells, may play a significant role in enabling COVID-19 infections.

The studies, one published in Nature Medicine and a similar study published Apr. 22 in the journal Cell, indicated that goblet cells highly express a receptor enzyme called ACE2 that binds to the spikes covering the outer surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.