Can the COVID-19 pandemic advance neuroinfectious research?

Investments in SARS-CoV-2 research provide a unique opportunity to explore how microbes may contribute to neurological conditions, an area of investigation that has been chronically underfunded. As exemplified by HIV/AIDS funding, crisis-driven research can yield broader biomedical advances, including spillover effects that address unanticipated and unmet medical needs. Leveraging newly established SARS-CoV-2 funding opportunities to study immune crosstalk and genetic predispositions could reveal therapeutic pathways and biomarkers for individuals who are vulnerable to infection-related dementia risk and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Despite the vast consequences of SARS-CoV-2, research investments following this pandemic may have long lasting benefits for other scientific endeavors, including insights for microbial contributions to neurodegenerative disease.