Open Medicine Foundation

Read more about their in-depth analysis of sleep on our website — link in bio: omf.ngo/sleep-disturba…

OMF's Computational Research Center for Complex Diseases and the Ronald G. Tompkins Harvard ME/CFS Collaboration are working with sleep specialists at Beth Israel Deaconess to understand unrefreshing sleep in ME/CFS and Long COVID.

There are limited sleep studies in people with ME/CFS, but some preliminary evidence shows there is a sleep spindle deficiency in patients.

Unrefreshing or fragmented sleep is a hallmark symptom of ME/CFS, so understanding the mechanism behind that disrupted sleep is an important step toward improving people's quality of life.

🧬 Science Wednesdays: Sleep spindles Sleep spindles are distinct portions of electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings that typically occur during non-rapid eye movement sleep.

They are thought to be important for moving information from short- to long-term storage (consolidating memories) and maintaining sleep stability.

The investigation tries to understand how POTS contributes to variations in the disease. Read more about the study here: nature.com/articles/s4159…

At OMF’s Collaborative Center at Uppsala, the team has utilized differential expression analysis on proteomics data collected on cerebrospinal fluid samples from people with ME/CFS with and without postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

🧬Science Wednesdays: Differential expression Differential expression is a way of looking at differences in protein levels (gene expression) between groups.

OMF’s large-scale biomarker project, BioQuest, is working to incorporate subtype identification into its study. Read more about the project on our website: omf.ngo/bioquest-large…. #MECFS

As ME/CFS is a heterogeneous disease, it’s likely that there are subtypes of the disease to identify. Subtyping might be particularly important for helping guide treatments.

🧬Science Wednesdays: Subtyping Subtyping is the act of identifying smaller groups within a larger group of people. In the context of disease, subtypes are typically variations of the larger disease (e.g., HER2+ breast cancer is a subtype of breast cancer).

As May Momentum comes to a close, we want to leave you with a taste of why our researchers do what they do. Watch the full conversation here: youtu.be/FPhECAf7gz0

Today at the Invest in ME Conference, Dr. Maureen Hanson — member of OMF's Scientific Advisory Board — presented "Searching for Chronic Infection in ME." Thank you, Dr. Hanson, for the research that moves us closer to answers for the millions living with ME/CFS.

Read more about the trial on our website: omf.ngo/the-life-impro….

OMF’s clinical trial, the Life Improvement Trial (LIFT), is investigating two drugs:pyridostigmine and low-dose naltrexone. Pyridostigmine has been used off-label to manage dysautonomia, so the LIFT may, in part, help to address dysautonomia in ME/CFS.

🧬Science Wednesdays: Autonomic nervous system The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary actions in the body like heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, and more.