Researchers from Deakin University’s Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation’s (IMPACT) Food & Mood Centre have received funding totalling close to $1 million through the 2023 Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Post-Acute Sequalae of COVID-19 (PASC) grant.
Deakin Distinguished Professor Felice Jacka and Dr Amelia McGuinness are leading the project ‘Gut Therapy to Improve Long COVID Outcomes and Wellbeing – The GLOW Trial’, which aims to investigate the role of the gut in promoting the condition known as Long COVID.
Long COVID has been found to affect a wide range of physical and mental health symptoms such as fatigue, depression, sleep quality and overall quality of life, as well as the ability to function in daily life.
The MRFF PASC grant scheme is focussed on research into the causes and effective management of PASC in the Australian community.
Director of the Food & Mood Centre, Deakin Distinguished Professor Felica Jacka OAM, says the successful project could provide crucial insights into the biological factors behind Long COVID and explore a new and highly novel potential treatment.
‘We believe that the gut plays a key role in this condition and that improving gut health through faecal microbial transplant (FMT) might be an effective approach.’
Gut Therapy to Improve Long COVID Outcomes and Wellbeing – The GLOW Trial
$996,923.80
The GLOW trial aims to investigate the role of the gut and its microbes in Long COVID, and to evaluate faecal microbial transplant (FMT)—the process of transferring gut microbiota from a healthy donor to a patient—as a potential treatment option for those living with Long COVID. The research team will analyse stool and blood samples from participants to better understand the gut microbiome’s role in the condition and assess FMT as a viable and acceptable treatment strategy.
‘We also want to explore if faecal transplants can improve some of the common symptoms of Long COVID including depression, fatigue, poor sleep, cognition, and exhaustion and can help people to get back to their level of everyday functioning before their COVID-19 infection,’ Dr McGuinness says.
Organisations that have partnered with the GLOW trial include the Geelong Long COVID Clinic, Emerge Australia, the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood and Microba.
Meet the team
Deakin Distinguished Professor Felice Jacka
Deakin Distinguished Professor Felice Jacka OAM is Director of the Food & Mood Centre and founder and immediate-past president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research (ISNPR). Felice is supported by an NHMRC Investigator Grant (L1) Fellowship.
Dr Amelia McGuinness
Dr. Amelia McGuinness is an Associate Research Fellow at the Food & Mood Centre within the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT) at Deakin University, Australia. Funded by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) grant, Dr. McGuinness’s research focuses on clinical trials of microbiome-modulating therapies to improve mental health symptoms, with a particular emphasis on dietary interventions and faecal microbiome transplantation (FMT).