cfs – Cornell Center for Enervating NeuroImmune Disease

Center receives 5-year NIH collaborative research center award

Announced April 11, 2023, the ENID Center has successfully competed for a 5-year U54 award from the National Institutes of Health. The U54 award provides funding for a multidisciplinary, multicomponent collaborative research center. The award will fund exciting research to explore topics such as endothelium function, cell-free RNA, immune cell dysfunction, extracellular vesicles, and more.

The new research award includes a subject participation component. We will soon provide information on how interested people can get involved. Check back here later, or stay tuned to the Center’s tweets and Facebook posts for updates.

The new funding is partly an extension of previous work. Specifically, we plan to utilize previous and future data, highlighted in the figure below, to perform multiomic analyses. Multiomics uses sophisticated computation approaches to incorporate multiple datasets, which can provide an enhanced and holistic perspective.

The Cornell Chronicle first announced the U54 award. Check out the press release for more information.

Fatty Acid Oxidation in ME/CFS Immune Cell Populations

A new publication from the Center on fatty acid oxidation in immune cells has appeared today. Jessica Maya is the lead author of Altered Fatty Acid Oxidation in Lymphocyte Populations of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

As discussed in the paper, there is more evidence for abnormal immunometabolism in ME/CFS. Maya utilized her expertise in flow cytometry and Seahorse flux analysis to demonstrate this dysfunction. She isolated natural killer (NK), helper T (CD4), and cytotoxic T (CD8) cell populations from both healthy donors and people with ME/CFS. These immune cell populations were studied in their circulating state and after stimulation. The stimulation process aims to mimic an immune response. Maya’s findings showed that all three of the cell types have an increased use of fats to power their activities when compared to healthy donors. Her results show that ME/CFS immune cells have a greater reliance on fats for energy when they are stimulated. Overall, these findings support the presence of an altered metabolic state in certain immune cells in individuals with ME/CFS.

Maya outlines these findings in her graphical and video abstracts inserted below.

Video abstract by Jessica Maya

Where do ME/CFS immune cells get their energy, or ale?

Jessica Maya, a graduate student in the Genetics, Genomics, and Development Program at Cornell University in Maureen Hanson’s lab, talks about ME/CFS, the immune system response, and the fuels that energize immune cells to properly defend the body. This talk was adapted from Cornell University’s 3 Minute Thesis Finalists Round Competition, where she was tasked to explain her thesis work in under 3 minutes in an engaging form that could be understood by an intelligent audience with no background in the research area.