PolyBio Research Foundation launched VIPER (Viral Immunopathogenesis and Persistence Repeat Donor Cohort), the first large-scale program built to rigorously validate diagnostic tests that measure SARS-CoV-2 persistence and other biological drivers of long COVID. An initial $1.35 million has been deployed to the University of California, San Francisco to start the work.
The program addresses a long-standing bottleneck: many promising long COVID tests exist only as academic research tools, unstandardized and unavailable to clinicians. VIPER plans to enroll a defined cohort of 150 participants, 100 with long COVID and 50 who had COVID-19 and recovered.
Its goals are to validate at least one biomarker, evaluate whether it holds up over time, and test whether it shifts in response to treatment. VIPER is the first phase of PolyBio's four-step Long COVID Cure Initiative.