Extended big data study

Beginning in 2016, the aim of this study was to extend the Severely ill Patient Study (SIPS) and conduct a comprehensive “Big Data” analysis on ME/CFS patients and their families.  The rationale of this study is that by using the unaffected family members as a control, the differences observed in the ME/CFS patients will be more specific to the disease and less related to differences in genetics, environment, and diet.

Almost as extensive as the SIPS study, blood from each patient is being used to examine the following:

·       Genome

·       Gene expression

·       Metabolomics

·       Proteomics

·       Cytokines

By comparing patients to healthy blood relatives, we are more likely to understand what genes cause or contribute to the development of ME/CFS. This data will also be integrated with the SIPS data.

The team anticipates that this study will help define meaningful subgroups of patients, biomarkers that could be useful in diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression, and molecular defects that could be targeted with new treatments.