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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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OMF’s Research Programs: Triple Giving November Coming Soon

OMF Canada Triple Giving November logoWe are thrilled to announce that starting November 1, we are launching our annual Triple Giving November (TGN) campaign. During this special period, every dollar you give to OMF Canada will be TRIPLED up to $500,000, thanks to the generous matching donors.

To ensure as many people as possible can take advantage of this incredible matching opportunity, this year we’re extending Triple Giving November until December 3 (“Giving Tuesday”, the International Giving Day).

What to expect during TGN

For the next six weeks, we will be sharing a series of interviews with our Directors, each discussing one of their ongoing projects.

Throughout this series and beyond, we’ll continue to reference the four major stages of the research process, described below, to help put each project into perspective as we talk about them.

Agenda for TGN: 11/5: David Systrom, 11/12: Alain Moreau, 11/19: Jonas Bergquist, 11/26: Chris Armstrong, 12/3: Ron Davis, 12/10: Wenzhong Xiao.

Open Medicine Foundation Canada’s Research Programs

Open Medicine Foundation Canada (OMFCA) is dedicated to conducting research focused on finding effective treatments and diagnostic markers for ME/CFS and Long COVID.

As part of this pursuit, OMF collaborating centers have over 35 projects that are in various stages of the research process. Conducting quality research is a complex, time-consuming process, often spanning years before yielding meaningful results. To provide further context for research updates we provide along the way, we want to delve more into some of these complexities of the process and how we try to navigate them when performing studies.

4 Major Stages of the Research Process

  • Study Design, IRB/Ethics Review: After conceptualizing a study, the team has to develop a full protocol and study materials. The protocol and study materials then undergo review by an Institutional Review Board, an organization responsible for ensuring proper conduct of human subject research.
  • Recruitment, Data Collection: After a study is approved, recruitment and data collection can begin as described in the protocol.
  • Data Analysis: After all data is collected from all participants, the analysis is conducted. Data analysis can include lab testing, statistics, and more.
  • Publication: After all data analysis is complete, the team can write a paper, presenting the results. The paper is then submitted to a journal and goes through a thorough review process before being accepted for publication.


Keep an eye out for our next email on November 1 which will highlight ways you can support OMFCA during TGN. Thank you for standing with us!

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.
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.