Announcing OMF's First ME/CFS Clinical Trial!

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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

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

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Person Role: Scientific Advisory Board Members

David Systrom, MD, PhD
Co-Director – The Ronald G. Tompkins Harvard ME/CFS Collaboration

David Systrom, headshot

Dr. David Systrom is a member of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital pulmonary and critical care faculty and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School where he directs the Dyspnea Clinic and the Advanced Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Program. He has been on the Harvard faculty for over 35 years during which time he has received NIH, […]

Daniel L. Peterson, MD

Daniel L. Peterson, MD, is an internist in Incline Village, Nevada and recognized medical expert on ME/CFS. Dr. Peterson has devoted more than 25 years of his clinical career to diagnosing and caring for patients with ME/CFS and related neuroimmune disorders, as well as collaborating with researchers to better understand the illness. Dr. Peterson’s experience […]

Michael Snyder, PhD

Michael Snyder, PhD, is a leader in the field of functional genomics and proteomics, and one of the major participants of the ENCODE project. Seminal findings from the Snyder laboratory include the discovery that much more of the human genome is transcribed and contains regulatory information than was previously appreciated, and a high diversity of […]

Jennifer Frankovich, MD

Jennifer Frankovich, MD, is a pediatric rheumatologist in California and is an expert in systemic autoimmune and post-infectious inflammatory diseases that affect the brain and specializes in Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS)/ Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS). Dr. Frankovich is the PANS Program Director at Stanford Children’s Hospital and an Associate […]

Alain Moreau, PhD

Photo of Alan Moreau

Dr. Alain Moreau is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Dentistry (Stomatology Department), cross-appointed to the Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine Department in the Faculty of Medicine at Université de Montréal. He served as Director of Research and Chief Scientific Officer of Sainte-Justine University Hospital (2013-2016). He is currently Director of The Network for Canadian […]

Wenzhong Xiao, PhD

As a world expert in computational genomics, Dr. Xiao develops bioinformatic and statistical tools for use in understanding human diseases, especially in studies of immuno-metabolic response. He focuses on integrative analysis and interpretation of multi-dimensional molecular, cellular, and clinical data of many types of patients, including those with ME/CFS. Dr. Xiao’s expertise will be essential for the […]

In Loving Memory of Ronald G. Tompkins, MD, ScD

Photo of Ron Tompkins

Sumner M. Redstone Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School Founding Director, Center for Surgery, Innovation & Bioengineering, Massachusetts General Hospital Former Co-Director, OMF-sponsored ME/CFS Collaboration at the Harvard-Affiliated Hospitals, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital September 24, 1951- January 17, 2022 Dr. Ronald Tompkins’s work in the genomics, proteomics, and ultrastructural roles in inflammation and metabolism, and […]

Baldomero M. Olivera, PhD

Through his studies in neurobiology and cone snails, Dr. Olivera has been able to develop a number of pain drugs, one of which is a thousand times more effective than morphine. Dr. Olivera is an expert on conotoxins that can modulate nerve function. He believes the future of neuroscience depends on collaboration across disciplines. Dr. Olivera brings to […]

Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD

Dr. Naviaux is internationally known for his expertise in human genetics, inborn errors of metabolism, metabolomics, and mitochondrial diseases. He discovered the cause and created the diagnostic test for Alpers syndrome, a classical form of mitochondrial disease. He has expertise in virology and molecular and cellular biology. Dr. Naviaux also works in oceanographic ecosystems research […]

H. Craig Heller, PhD

Dr. Heller has a wide breadth of knowledge of biology. He conducts extensive research in exercise physiology, including examining fatigue in athletes. Dr. Heller has developed an instrument that allows increased exercise without fatigue. Having someone who understands fatigue and the normal response to exercise is essential for understanding how it goes wrong in ME/CFS. […]

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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.
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.