BRMEC9 Colloquium 2019
The ninth Invest in ME Research Biomedical Research into ME Colloquium (#BRMEC9) took place in London over two days: 29th–30th May 2019.
Focused on boosting international ME research collaboration, it drew representatives from the world's leading biomedical initiatives,
plus the USA's CDC and NIH.
We supplemented this with expertise from outside the ME field to unlock new research opportunities.
The #BRMEC9 Colloquium 9 again had representation from most of the main biomedical research initiatives now occurring throughout the world and also participation from USA's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). We supplement this with expertise from outside the field of ME to enable more opportunities to be established to further research.
The Invest in ME Research Colloquiums have spawned a number of positive initiatives over the years and are the most successful research meetings for forming new research initiatives for ME with multiple collaborative initiatives being formed across continents.
The research Colloquium in London preceded the IIMEC14 annual public international biomedical research conference on 31st May 2019.
| Session | Presenter(s) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrival Refreshments | |||||
| Welcome to the BRMEC9 |
Ian GibsonUniversity of East Anglia, UK |
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| Clinical Research/ Clinical Trials/Treatment Experiences | |||||
| Impact of Co-morbid Conditions on ME/CFS: Information from complementary data sources |
Elizabeth UngerCDC, USA |
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| NIH Strategy Update |
Vicky WhittemoreNIH, USA |
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| Harvard Plans for Clinical Research for ME |
Ron TompkinsMassachusetts General Hospital, USA |
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| Clinical Collaboration in Europe – A Bridge to Research |
EMECCEuropean ME Clinicians Council |
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| Catecholamine Replacement Therapy (CRT) in ME |
Olli PoloUniversity of Tampere, Finland |
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| Cyclophosphamide intervention in ME/CFS and associations to molecular markers |
Ingrid G. RekelandBergen, Norway |
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| HLA associations in ME |
Benedicte LieOslo, Norway |
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| Epstein-Barr virus induced ME/CFS |
Jonathan KerrNorwich, UK |
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| Chaired Discussion - Clinical Research/ Clinical Trials/Treatment Experiences | |||||
| Systems Biology | |||||
| Establishing new mechanistic and diagnostic paradigms for ME/CFS |
Ron DavisStanford, USA |
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| Severely Ill Patient Study of ME/CFS |
Wenzhong XiaoHarvard, USA |
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| Identifying Genetic Predisposition, and Genomic Dysfunction of Immune system, Hormone and Metabolic Regulation in ME/CFS for Improved Diagnostics and Treatment Avenues |
Travis CraddockNova Southeastern University, USA |
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| The systems-level immunology of ME/CFS, and activation of the inflammatory reflex |
Petter BrodinKarolinska Institutet, Sweden |
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| Sex-specific differences in miRNA expression in ME/CFS |
Lubov NathansonNova Southeastern University, USA |
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| Chaired Discussion | |||||
| Metabolomics | |||||
| Immunocellular bioenergetics in Danish females with ME |
Rikke OlsenAarhus University Hospital, Denmark |
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| Targeted metabolic profiling and associations to clinical data in ME |
Øystein FlugeBergen, Norway |
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| Untargeted metabolic profiling and associations to clinical data in ME |
Karl Johan TronstadBergen, Norway |
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| Longitudinal Metabolomics Research into ME/CFS (tbc) |
Chris ArmstrongStanford, USA |
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| Chaired Discussion - Metabolomics | |||||
| Session | Presenter(s) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrival Refreshments | |||||
| Welcome to Day 2 BRMEC9 |
Ian GibsonUEA,UK |
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| Microbiome/Virome | |||||
| Are bacteria good for your brain? Communication between the gut microbiota and the blood-brain barrier”? The influence of the gut microbiota upon the brain’s defences and the implications for cognition |
Simon McArthurQueen Mary, University of London, UK |
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| Virome and gut microbiota research at QIB |
Daniel VipondQuadram Institute, UK |
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| Microbiome-host communication in ME/CFS |
Mady HornigColumbia University Mailman School of Public Health, USA |
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| Chaired Discussion - Microbiome | |||||
| Pathophysiology: | |||||
| Transient receptor potential ion channels in the aetiology and pathomechanism of CFS/ME’ |
Don StainesNCNED, Australia |
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| Pathophysiological basis of Fibromyalgia |
David Andersson/Stuart BevanKings College London, UK |
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| Characteristics and pathophysiological changes in a large cohort of Danish ME-patients |
Jesper MehlsenCopenhagen, Denmark |
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| Chaired Discussion - Pathophysiology: | |||||
| Neuroscience/Neuroimaging | |||||
| Ongoing study of physiological and fMRI measures before and after symptom provocation by invasive cardiopulmonary exercise testing |
Michael VanElzakkerMassachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Tufts University, USA |
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| PEM in fMRI-Exercise paradigm |
James BaraniukGeorgetown University, USA |
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| Chaired Discussion - Neuroscience | |||||
| Biomarkers | |||||
| Preliminary Data Coming from SNP study |
Nancy KlimasNova Southeastern University, USA |
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| Extracellular Vesicles in ME/CFS |
Maureen HansonCornell University, USA |
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| Proteomics and autoantibodies |
Jonas BergquistUppsala, Sweden |
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| Oxidative stress hypothesis for reprogramming PBMC to iPSCs then to Neurons in ME/CFS patients |
tbc |
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| Transposable element activation links to ME/CFS |
Elisa OltraUniversidad Católica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain |
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| Chaired Discussion - Biomarkers | |||||
| Group Discussion of Issues led by European ME Clinicians Council |
Professor Markku PartinenUniversity of Helsinki, Finland |
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| BRMEC9 Summary | |||||
Young Researchers
The Thinking the Future conferences are research meetings organised by the charity to encourage biomedical research into ME and international collaboration amongst young and early career researchers. This has been a major objective of the charity. An international family of researchers working together has been facilitated by the Invest in ME Research BRMEC* Biomedical Research into ME Colloquiums held annually in London, UK. To ensure that a foundation of biomedical research into ME can be sustained and to encourage new ideas from new areas then we cannot rely just on this family of researchers that has been built up from all parts of the world. We need to draw in knowledge and expertise from other areas – as we have been doing for many years with our research Colloquiums and international Conferences. Importantly, we also need to encourage early career researchers – and young researchers.
In 2019 Invest in ME Research worked with the USA National Institues of Health (NIH) to arrange two TtF conferences - one in Washington DC and one in London. Read more
