The Post-Acute Viral Infection diseases Group (PAVING) Centre of Research Excellence will be launched with $3 million in Federal funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS) Deputy Director Distinguished Professor Stephanie Gras will lead a team of collaborators from universities across Australia to research the mechanisms behind post-viral diseases and pave the way to therapeutics development.
Up to one in 10 Australians who have had a COVID-19 infection now live with a form of Long COVID. Another 250,000 Australians are living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).
Professor Gras said researchers hoped to use Long COVID as a starting point to understand the mechanism of post-viral illnesses.
People with lived experience of Long COVID, Multiple Sclerosis and ME/CFS have joined the team of researchers and clinicians to increase knowledge of similarities and differences between the conditions.
Professor Gras said those who lived with Long COVID had often recorded vast amounts of data unavailable with other viruses, including their infection date, symptoms, vaccination history and previous treatments.
“Because the symptoms are similar between multiple post-viral infection diseases, there’s a good chance that some mechanisms are also shared. What we learn with Long COVID should be transferable to other diseases.”
Professor Gras said the centre’s research had the potential to inform therapeutic treatments that could improve the lives of people affected by post-viral illnesses, whose symptoms can range from an enduring cough to years confined to a wheelchair.
“Although we know that viruses can cause these diseases, how this happens is still unclear, hindering treatment development. We aim to find markers for these diseases and test potential treatments, while building workforce skills to improved health outcomes.”
Long COVID is a disease that can develop three months after COVID-19, with symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath and muscle weakness often becoming debilitating.
The disease shares similarities with other viral-onset illnesses such as ME/CFS, Lupus and Multiple Sclerosis.
La Trobe’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation Professor Chris Pakes said the research was a great example of the significant work being done at the University.
“Professor Gras and her team are pioneers in their field, working to find treatments that are at the forefront of modern medicine,” Professor Pakes said.
“Long COVID and other post-viral diseases impact many in our community and this CRE will improve health outcomes across the globe. I congratulate Stephanie and her team.”
The Centre of Research Excellence is a collaboration between La Trobe, University of Queensland, Monash University, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Murdoch University, Griffith University and Deakin University.
The NHMRC Centres of Research Excellence scheme provides support for teams of researchers to pursue collaborative research and develop capacity in basic science research, clinical research, health services research and public health research.
Professor Gras is the Convenor of the Long COVID 2025 conference, taking place virtually on 12 September.
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