Funds will support exploration of SARS-CoV-2’s potential to drive cancer, as well as continued work delineating persistence of the virus in long COVID tissue, including therapies to optimally clear persistent virus
A scientist at UCSF points to data from their team showing SARS-CoV-2 spike RNA in gut tissue collected from a long COVID patient. (Photo by Noah Berger)
Medford, Mass., April 7, 2025 – PolyBio Research Foundation is excited to announce a donation from the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation. Funds will facilitate the expansion of PolyBio’s Long COVID Research Consortium (LCRC) – a global collaboration of scientists working to rapidly study and treat long COVID. Specifically, the new support will allow LCRC to expand studies documenting the long-term persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in tissue and how it contributes to long COVID. This includes a focus on identifying treatments that support the immune system’s ability to clear persistent virus. Funds will also allow LCRC to begin a novel research program focused explicitly on documenting and characterizing potential post-COVID cancer risk and tumor development.
“Long COVID is disabling millions of patients across the globe,” says Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation head Patrick Soon-Shiong. “By studying how the virus persists and how to clear it we can help to solve long COVID and give relief to those who suffer from it.”
Lingering virus
Long COVID sample analysis at UCSF. (Photo by Noah Berger)
Research increasingly links long COVID symptoms to persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection, with evidence showing that the virus can linger in reservoirs for months, or even years, in at least a subset of individuals. For example, SARS-CoV-2 RNA and spike protein have been found in the gut wall for years following acute infection.
These findings, along with similar results from other investigators, suggest that in some patients, long COVID is a disease of tissue viral persistence. Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation funds will support the continued analysis of tissue samples collected from long COVID individuals to determine how SARS-CoV-2 persists, how the body responds to the infection, and how interventions targeting viral persistence may alter the biology and ultimately improve health in people with long COVID.
COVID and cancer
The funds will also launch a new program to assess potential cancer-related impacts of SARS-CoV-2. This area of research is especially urgent given the recent rise of colon cancer in young adults and the now-known ability of the SARS-CoV-2 to persist and exacerbate inflammation in the colon. Generally, multiple viruses beyond SARS-CoV-2 can give rise to cancerous tumors. Indeed, an estimated 15% of all human cancers worldwide are already linked to such viruses. Determining if SARS-CoV-2 has similar properties is consequently imperative.
LCRC research to assess COVID-associated cancer risk and tumor development will include in-depth tracking and assessment of incident or recurrent cancer diagnoses in post-COVID individuals over time. Scientists will also work to examine specific oncogenic pathways and tumor development pathways in samples collected from long COVID patients, with a focus on those collected from the gut.
“We are hugely thankful for the Chan Soon-Shiong Foundation’s generosity,” says PolyBio President Dr. Amy Proal. “They understand the incredible urgency of documenting and treating SARS-CoV-2’s persistence and potential impacts on cancer – topics that are of enormous importance to our public health.”
About PolyBio
PolyBio Research Foundation is a 501(c)3 transforming how complex chronic conditions like long COVID 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.