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Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS) Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia Leading Research. Delivering Hope.Open Medicine Foundation® Canada
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Announcement!!! A New Large-Scale ME/CFS Biomarker Study (BioQuest)!

We are excited to announce that, thanks to two very generous grants, we have successfully secured $800,000—one-third of our goal—that will allow us to initiate a large-scale ME/CFS biomarker study (BioQuest)!

BioQuestME/CFS Biomarker Study on a blue background

The Heart of the Matter

  • OMF has received funding to start an ME/CFS biomarker study, called BioQuest.
  • The goal of BioQuest is to identify a biomarker for ME/CFS that can be evaluated through a blood test and differentiate it from similar conditions.
  • The study team plans to measure over 10,000 proteins and metabolites in blood samples of up to 1,200 patients and controls that have already been collected and stored.
  • Additional funding is needed to ensure we can test all collected samples.

BioQuest: An ME/CFS Biomarker Study

We are excited to announce that, thanks to our generous donors, we have successfully secured $800,000—one-third of our goal—that will allow us to initiate a large-scale ME/CFS biomarker study (BioQuest)!

The lack of a diagnostic test for ME/CFS is a widely acknowledged problem for both patients and healthcare providers. Symptom-based diagnosis can not only be subjective, but overlap with other conditions, ultimately delaying diagnosis and clinical management of the disease. Therefore, the goal of BioQuest is to identify a biochemical signature for ME/CFS that can be conveniently evaluated through a blood test and would differentiate ME/CFS from other similar conditions.

Open Medicine Foundation is uniquely poised to conduct this study, with access to up to 1,200 patient and contrast control samples—including multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and autoimmune disorders—that are already collected and stored. In this study, the team will measure over 10,000 proteins and metabolites in these blood samples. Then, using bioinformatic and artificial intelligence techniques, they will try to identify a 5-20 protein/metabolite biomarker that is unique to ME/CFS.

With the initial funding we received, the study team can proceed with finalizing the study design and obtaining the necessary approvals (the first stage of the research process) to begin testing a portion of the already collected samples.

Every additional donation we receive for BioQuest will allow us to reach our goal of testing 1,200 samples. 

Donate to BioQuest

OMF Canada also accepts gifts of stock, cryptocurrency, real estate and retirement assets. Learn more today!

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Microvesicles and viral sequencing
Microvesicles are a type of extracellular vesicle that is released from the cell membrane. Vesicles are small, fluid-filled sacs or vacuoles within the body. Sequencing is a technique used to determine the exact sequence of bases (A, C, G, and T) in a DNA (or viral) molecule.
NMR Metabolomics
NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) is an instrument/tool used to perform metabolic studies, metabolic profiling, and metabolomics in biofluids and tissues for more than 40 years using magnetic fields. There is a very close connection between metabolic measurements and NMR. This connection has flourished because of NMR’s many unique strengths for characterizing complex mixtures’ chemical composition.
Proteomics
The large-scale study of proteins, which are large, complex molecules that are required for structure, function, and regulation of the human body's tissues and organs.
Autoantibodies
Antibodies that react with self-molecules and that occur in healthy individuals and are referred to as natural antibodies or autoantibodies.
Extracellular DNA for viral reactivation and Mitochondrial DNA
exDNA (extracellular DNA), exDNA is often secreted actively and is used to perform several tasks, thereby offering an attractive target or tool for biotechnological, medical, environmental, and general microbiological applications. Viruses are intracellular parasites that rely to a significant extent on the host cell for replication. Viral reactivation occurs when an active replication of the viral genome results in a lytic (degradation of the cell) infection characterized by the release of new progeny (descendant) virus particles.
Immune cell profiling
The immune system has many important regulatory roles in disease development and progression. Given the emergence of effective immune therapies, reliable predictors of response are needed. Immune cell profiling determines response by evaluating immune cell populations from treated and untreated samples. For our purposes, we will evaluate the white blood cell response to the viral infection using a process called “Cytof.”
Leukocyte Genomics
A leukocyte is a colorless cell circulating in the blood and body fluids and is involved in counteracting foreign substances and disease. A genome is all genetic material of an organism. Genomics is a biology field focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. Therefore, leukocyte genomics is the study of all genetic material of leukocytes.
Metabolomics
Metabolomics is a way to study metabolism – that is, through measuring amounts of the metabolites (small molecules) produced by our bodies as we convert food into energy and other molecules that our cells need to survive. Metabolomics technology is ‘large-scale,’ meaning that several thousand metabolites can be measured from a single sample of e.g., blood or urine.
Micro RNA
Cells use Micro RNA to control whether a particular gene is making too much, too little or the normal amount of its protein at a particular time.