The End ME / CFS Project | Open Medicine Foundation

Driving research of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS),
Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia and Post COVID .

POWERED BY OPEN COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

The End ME/CFS Project encompasses OMF funded and facilitated research conducted within five ME/CFS Collaborative Research Centers (CRCs). OMF’s guiding strategy focuses on open, collaborative research so that precise diagnostic tools and life-changing treatments can be available to people with related chronic complex diseases as soon as possible.

Funding an internationally-based research network instead of single researchers ensures the stability and collaboration essential for an outcomes-focused, transparent, and multi-pronged approach to finding answers

OMF COLLABORATIVE NETWORK

The five CRCs are working collaboratively to build a repository of data about ME/CFS and related chronic, complex diseases such as Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia and Post COVID-19.

This data is essential to develop diagnostic technologies, understand the molecular basis of the diseases, and uncover effective diagnostic tools and treatments.

ME / CFS Collaborative
Research Center

at Stanford

See the research

The Harvard
ME / CFS Collaboration

at Harvard Affiliated Hospitals

See the research

ME / CFS Collaborative
Research Center

at Uppsala, Sweden

See the research

ME / CFS Collaborative
Research Center

at the CHU Sainte-Justine/
Université de Montréal

See the research

Melbourne
ME / CFS Collaboration

at Melbourne, Australia

See the research

Major Research Initiatives

With oversight from OMF’s Boards of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board, the following research projects further OMF’s Strategic Goals to improve the diagnosis and treatment of ME/CFS, Post-treatment Lyme Disease, and related chronic, complex diseases.

Autoimmunity and Autoantibodies

Kynurenine Clinical Trial for ME / CFS

Mestinon Clinical Trial

Metabolic Trap

Multi-omics

Multi-omics Exercise Intolerance

Nanoneedle Diagnostic Tool

Neuro Inflammation

Nitrogen Hypothesis

Personalized Automated Symptom Summary (PASS)

Post-viral Encephalopathy

Red Blood Cell Deformability

Severely ill Patient

Skeletal Muscle Dysfunction

Stress-Activated MicroRNAs

T cells and Immunology

Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1)

Post COVID-19 to ME/CFS Research Plan

The current COVID-19 pandemic offers an unprecedented opportunity to understand how a viral infection may convert to ME/CFS in some patients.

The five ME/CFS Collaborative Centers have begun a unique, extensive, in-depth longitudinal molecular study following COVID-19 patients. Their shared goal is to determine the pathways involved in maintaining long-term symptoms in some patients, possibly converting to ME/CFS. They seek to learn about these pathways so as to develop biomarkers, novel drug targets, new treatment, and prevention strategies.

OMF Funded Research Publications

Theory: Treatments for Prolonged ICU Patients May Provide New Therapeutic Avenues for ME/CFS, by Jonas Bergquist, MD, PhD, Uppsala Collaboration

Insights from Invasive Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing by David Systrom, MD, Harvard Collaboration

Mechanisms That Prevent Recovery in Prolonged ICU Patients Also Underlie ME/CFS by Jonas Bergquist, MD, PhD, Uppsala Collaboration

Profile of circulating microRNAs in myalgic encephalomyelitis and their relation to symptom severity, and disease pathophysiology by Alain Moreau, PhD, Montreal Collaboration

The IDO Metabolic Trap Hypothesis for the Etiology of ME/CFS by Robert D. Phair, PhD and Ron Davis, PhD, Stanford Collaboration

A Nanoelectronics-blood-based diagnostic biomarker for ME / CFS by Rahim Esfandyarpour, PhD and Ronald W. Davis, PhD, Stanford Collaboration

Red Blood Cell Deformability is diminished in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, by Anand Ramasubramanian, PhD and Ronald Davis, PhD, Stanford Collaboration

Metabolic features of chronic fatigue syndrome by Robert Naviaux, MD, PhD, Stanford Collaboration

Help us accelerate this urgent research!

Parent Resources

Foundation Team

OMF is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization
(EIN# 26-4712664). All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law.

Open Medicine Foundation®
29302 Laro Drive, Agoura Hills, CA 91301 USA
Phone: 650-242-8669

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Averting a second pandemic:

Open Medicine Foundation leads groundbreaking international study of

Long COVID’s conversion to ME/CFS

AGOURA HILLS, CALIF. — Open Medicine Foundation (OMF) is leading a large-scale international collaborative study investigating the potential conversion of Post-Acute Sequelae SARS-CoV-2 infection — more commonly known as Long COVID or Post-COVID Syndrome — to Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), a chronic, life-altering disease with no known cause, diagnostic test or FDA approved treatments available.

Up to 2.5 million people in the U.S. alone suffer from ME/CFS; the COVID-19 pandemic could at least double that number. An estimated 35 percent of Americans who had COVID-19 have failed to fully recover several months after infection, prompting many to call it “a potential second pandemic.”

OMF recognized a familiar health crisis emerging, one with eerie similarities to ME/CFS. This crisis presented a unique opportunity to understand how a viral infection — in this case COVID-19 — may develop into ME/CFS in some patients. The goal is to find targeted treatments for ME/CFS patients and ultimately prevent its onset in people infected with SARS-CoV-2 or other infections.

The federal government is only now investing in Post-COVID research, with no focus on its connection to ME/CFS. OMF has already engaged researchers for the largest-scale study of its kind, solely supported by private donors who have contributed over one million dollars to date. When fully funded, the five million dollar, three-year study will be conducted across the globe at OMF funded Collaborative Research Centers, led by some of the world’s top researchers and ME/CFS experts.

BACKGROUND

In a significant percentage of patients, infections preceded their development of ME/CFS. For example, according to the CDC about one in ten infected with Epstein-Barr virus, Ross River virus, or Coxiella burnetti develop symptoms that meet the criteria for ME/CFS.

THE STUDY

The ability to follow the development of ME/CFS from a known viral infection is unprecedented to date and crucial to researchers’ understanding of the disease. The focus of this study is to find the biological differences between persons returning to good health after COVID-19 and persons who remained ill more than six months after infection and developed ME/CFS. Understanding these alterations in key pathways can lead to groundbreaking discoveries including new biomarkers, drug targets, and prevention and treatment strategies.

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About Open Medicine Foundation

Established in 2012, Open Medicine Foundation leads the largest, concerted worldwide nonprofit effort to diagnose, treat, and prevent ME/CFS and related chronic, complex diseases such as Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Post COVID. OMF adds urgency to the search for answers by driving transformational philanthropy into global research. We have raised over $28 Million from private donors and facilitated and funded the establishment of five prestigious ME/CFS Collaborative Research Centers around the world. To learn more, visit www.omf.ngo.

CONTACT:

Heather Ah San

Development and Communications Manager

1-650-242-8669

heather@omf.ngo

Driving research of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS),Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia and Post COVID .

OMF Funded Research Centers