Funding deepens research on persistence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in LongCOVID patients, launches clinical trials
MEDFORD, Mass., Feb. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — PolyBio Research Foundation today announced the second phase of its LongCovid Research Consortium (LCRC), including the distribution of $15M to fund research and clinical trials.
Over a dozen institutions globally participate in PolyBio’s consortium, including leading scientists from Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Mount Sinai, Yale, and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). With its new phase of research, PolyBio expands the consortium‘s international reach, adding teams based in France, the UK, and Sweden.
“Persistence of the virus in the gut is one of the biggest leads in the space,” says LCRC member Dr. Sara Cherry.
Consortium member and PolyBio Co-Founder Dr. Michael VanElzakker of Harvard University analyzing platelet blood cells from LongCOVID patients
In distributing its second round of funds, PolyBio will invest in deepening research on persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the tissue of LongCOVID patients, covered in Nature. “Persistence of the virus in the gut is one of the biggest leads in the space,” says Dr. Sara Cherry, the John W. Eckman Professor of Medical Science in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, whose team is working to identify drug combinations that can eliminate virus in gut tissue.
PolyBio will also fund UCSF to launch the world’s first program to collect comprehensive tissue samples from LongCOVID patients. “The UCSF team contains people who made HIV/AIDS a treatable disease. These researchers rapidly pivoted into LongCOVID at the outset of the pandemic,” says PolyBio President Dr. Amy Proal.
PolyBio’s second phase of projects also includes funding for clinical trials evaluating HIV antivirals for LongCOVID, a top priority of patients. “If HIV antivirals have a positive impact on LongCOVID, the ability to improve the lives of patients is that much closer at hand, as these drugs are affordable and safety tested,” says Dr. David Putrino, who serves as the Nash Family Director of Mount Sinai’s Cohen Center for Recovery From Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE), which will direct the clinical trials.
“We’ve been waiting so long for hard-hitting clinical trials targeting the root causes of this disease,” says Christy Collins who, like 18 million patients globally, suffers from LongCOVID.
About PolyBio
PolyBio Research Foundation is a 501(c)3 transforming how complex chronic conditions like LongCOVID are studied, diagnosed, and treated. PolyBio conceptualizes research projects that identify root cause drivers of chronic conditions and builds collaborative teams to make the projects a reality. PolyBio is supported by numerous donors including Kanro – a philanthropic fund to support open source scientific research established by Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum.
Media Contact
Amy Proal, President of PolyBio Research Foundation
[email protected]
SOURCE PolyBio Research Foundation
