New York City-based Mount Sinai has received a $6.2 million grant from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, a nonprofit launched in 2001.
The funding will be used to expand the Cohen Center for Recovery From Complex Chronic Illnesses to encompass research and care beyond long COVID, such as long Lyme Disease/Lyme+ and other infection-associated complex chronic illnesses, according to a Sept. 20 news release.
The grant will help establish research programs focused on distinguishing key similarities and differences between long COVID, long Lyme disease/Lyme+ and other infection-associated complex chronic illnesses, including myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and other tick-borne diseases.
"People with long Lyme disease have struggled to find centers that can provide knowledgeable and compassionate care for their serious and debilitating symptoms," said David Putrino, PhD, who will serve as director of the chronic illness center. "We are proud that our center will be one of the few places in the world that is embedded in a major clinical institution to provide this care — this is a patient population that has been without access to adequate care for too long."
Dr. Putrino aims to grow the center with two co-directors. Joseph Herrera, DO, chair of the health system's rehabilitation and human performance department, will serve as the center's medical director. Amy Proal, PhD, president of the polybio research foundation and chief scientific officer of the long COVID research consortium, will be scientific director.