Announcing OMF's First ME/CFS Clinical Trial!

Get the details
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS) Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia Leading Research. Delivering Hope.Open Medicine Foundation® Canada

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

Donate
Sign Up
Main Menu

Opera Singer Jacqueline Ko Becomes OMF Canada Ambassador

Join us to welcome Jacqueline and help raise awareness.

We are excited to welcome Canadian opera singer, producer and disability advocate Jacqueline Ko as our new OMF Canada Ambassador!

Despite her struggle with ME/CFS, which left her bedbound for years, Jacqueline has received multiple awards for her singing, and critical acclaim for her roles in opera, theatre, musical theatre and film. She is also the founding artistic director of Opera Mariposa, a disability-led arts organization in Vancouver, Canada that showcases opera’s rising stars.

Jacqueline came down with ME/CFS at age six and was diagnosed at age 10. Throughout the worst years of her illness, her love of music is what kept her going — and at age 17 she merged her love of music with advocacy by presenting her first Benefit & Awareness show for ME/CFS. Since then, Opera Mariposa’s annual Benefit & Awareness events have raised over $80,000 for treatment, research, education and patient support, and Jacqueline’s story has been featured in the book Lighting Up a Hidden World: CFS and ME by Valerie Free. We’re excited that Jacqueline is speaking out in support of OMF and OMF Canada, and can’t wait to work with her to keep raising awareness!

In addition to acting as our Canadian OMF Ambassador, Jacqueline continues to fight for disability issues through her work with Opera Mariposa. Her company promotes inclusive casting and accessible performances, and Livestreams many of their shows for free — a boon to ME/CFS patients around the globe, who can enjoy live musical performances from home. Mariposa’s next production is the Italian comic opera “Gianni Schicchi” by Puccini, coming to the stage November 15-23, 2019. To learn more, visit the Opera Mariposa website, and be sure to connect with Jacqueline and Mariposa on social media! (Photo above by Kathryn Nickford Photography)

Learn more about Jacqueline.

Follow Jacqueline Ko: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Follow Opera Mariposa: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Watch Jacqueline’s message of hope here.

 

Consent management

Consent Preferences

Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) Form 

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.
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.
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.