On August 21st, 2020, the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University is hosting the 2020 International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephelomyelitis (IACFS/ME) virtual research conference. The conference, which is targeted towards biomedical and behavioral professionals, will focus on biomedical, public health, and behavioral aspects of ME/CFS and associated comorbidities. A portion of the meeting will also be devoted to COVID-19 and its relevance to ME/CFS research and clinical care. Continuing medical education credits for physicians and nurses will be provided.

The presenters will cover a wide variety of topics relevant to ME/CFS, including how immunological, autonomic, and metabolic dysfunction contribute to the pathophysiology of ME/CFS and might serve as biomarkers, how integrated, cross-disciplinary, and international research/clinical networks might accelerate clinical and scientific progress, and will discuss insights from patients developing ME/CFS after COVID-19 infection.

The Zoom-style meeting will run from 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM EDT, and will be recorded so people unable to attend live may watch it afterwards.

For more information and to register, click here. 

JAX investigators in the lab of Derya Unutmaz recently submitted an article for publication about a new assay that determines how well anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies are able to neutralize binding with ACE-2, the human receptor for the virus. The article is now available as a preprint on medRxiv. 

Mark Wanner has also released a Research Highlight article on the Jackson Laboratory website, where he explains the study in detail and speculates on what the findings could mean in terms of determining disease susceptibility and progression in patients. This new assay may help aid in understanding the quality or duration of the antibody response during COVID-19, and have important implications in public health and vaccine effectiveness.

To read the Research Highlight by Mark Wanner, click here. 

 

W. Ian Lipkin and our collaborators at the Center for Solutions for ME/CFS at Columbia University recently published a new article in PLoS ONE on July 21, 2020 on plasma proteomic profiling in ME/CFS. The study looked at 39 ME/CFS patients and 41 healthy controls, and found a significant association between ME/CFS and immune dysregulation. The group was able to use a machine learning classifier to differentiate between ME/CFS patients and healthy controls with a high degree of accuracy, so the study highlights the potential use of the plasma proteome as a source of biomarkers for ME/CFS.

The Center for Solutions also just released a blog post about the study, which was written by Dr. Anthony Komaroff and discusses the implications of the results. Dr. Komaroff explains what proteomics is, and what the results of the study mean for ME/CFS and potential research and treatments in the future.

To read the full research article in PLoS ONE, click here.
To read the blog post by Dr. Anthony Komaroff, click here.