Biomedical scientists from a range of disciplines met for a two-day workshop in Bristol on 13 and 14 April to discuss the ME/CFS “Grand Challenge” project, which plans to use a “big data” approach to the biochemistry of the illness and determine whether it is, as suspected, several different diseases. The study will be the biggest
Dr Charles Shepherd of the ME Association has announced that the UK’s ME/CFS Biobank is now ready to send blood samples to researchers anywhere in the world. The biobank is run by a team headed by Dr Luis Nacul at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and forms part of the main University
Australian researchers have found an abnormal centre in the brain which may explain problems with the signalling around the body.
Professor Vincent Racianello of Columbia University has said of the PACE trial controversy, “I think they are going to ignore, obfuscate, and give their usual responses until we are all dead. I don’t have hope that the PACE authors, or Lancet, will respond in any meaningful way until there is more of an outcry.” Racianello’s
ME/CFS patient and science blogger Simon McGrath has produced a patient-friendly version of a recent peer-reviewed editorial on the disease that appeared in the science journal Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior. The article, titled The biological challenge of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: a solvable problem, became Fatigue’s most-read paper ever within a week of publication, with over 3700 views as
This year’s conference of the International Association for CFS/ME (IACFS/ME) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on 27–30 October will include speeches by Dr. Walter Koroshetz and Dr. Øystein Fluge. Dr Koroshetz, who is Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and head of the Trans-NIH ME/CFS Working Group, will give the conference’s keynote
In Dr. Albright’s study of the families of ME/CFS patients in Utah, risk of ME was found to be 2.7 times greater in first-degree relatives of ME patients, 2.3 times greater in second-degree relatives, and 1.93 times greater in third-degree relatives. This familial clustering is the basis for new research in Norway, where scientists are
Australia’s University of NSW’s Psychiatry Department tested a graded activity program on 25 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Before the study, patients could complete around 4 hours of ‘moderate intensity exercise’ a week (self-reported). It was not measured or recorded at the end of the program but the study found small improvements in cognitive performance, with some caveats.
The Norwegian Research Council has announced that it received 737 research proposals from ME/CFS patients and their families in response to a call for ideas in April. Patients and others were invited to send in their ideas by May 3, using a short online form. In the call for proposals in April, Mr Hallén had
A recent Australian study, Progressive Brain Changes in Patients With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Longitudinal MRI Study finds that CFS patients meeting both Fukuda and CCC have decreased grey and white matter volumes in the areas of the brain we use for language processing. Interestingly, patients had increased grey matter volume in the supplementary motor
