What are the lasting effects of COVID-19 on the body? Paul Benson, M.D., Professor and Autopsy Section Head in the Department of Pathology's Division of Anatomic Pathology, was awarded a Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) grant from the National Institutes of Health for his project, titled, "A Multi-site Pathology Study of Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection." The RECOVER initiative is a first-of-its-kind, patient-centered research effort to understand, diagnose, prevent and treat SARS-CoV-2. The grant will fund $158,000 per year and will run through April 2026.

"The goal of the RECOVER initiative is to enhance our understanding of recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infections to support the development of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions," Benson said.

More specifically, the goals are to characterize the incidence and prevalence of sequelae of SARS-CoV-2, characterize the spectrum of clinical symptoms, organ dysfunction, natural history and distinct phenotype of the infection and define the biological mechanisms underlying pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2.

Long COVID is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a chronic condition that occurs after SARS-CoV-2 infection and can be present for months or years after illness.

"We believe the RECOVER tissue pathology (autopsy) study will inform Long COVID research and treatment options for years to come," Benson said.

The studies are comprised of three cohorts across the lifespan; pediatric, adult and tissue pathology. The tissue pathology study is a cross-sectional study used to define the epidemiology, natural history, clinical spectrum and underlying mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a population representative of the general COVID-19 population in the United States. The autopsy study characterizes the pathology of non-hospitalized patients who die 30 days or later from symptom onset of COVID-19 and hospitalized patients who die 30 days or later after discharge from a hospitalization for COVID-19. The study will also include decedents who had previously fully recovered from the infection. Autopsies will be performed to address the pathophysiology of the potential long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on human health.