NIH – Cornell Center for Enervating NeuroImmune Disease

Center participates in the NIH ME/CFS Research Roadmap series

The working group of the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council, part of the National Institutes of Health, recommended the development of research priorities for ME/CFS to help move the field towards translational research and clinical trials. The result led to creation of the ME/CFS Research Roadmap Working Group. The Group, co-led by Drs. Lucinda Bateman and Maureen Hanson, produced a series of eight webinars. A complete description of the webinar series can be found on the ME/CFS Research Roadmap website.

Our Center’s mission is to promote research to identify its cause(s), biomarkers, and pathophysiology in order to lead to prevention and effective treatments. With this focus, several Center investigators presented data to support the development of research priorities for ME/CFS. The talks from our Center are included below.

Maureen Hanson presented “ Immune cell-type approaches to identify mechanisms of ME/CFS” during the Immune System webinar. Her talk starts at 1:38:40.

Jessica Maya presented “Investigations and Consequences of Altered Metabolism in ME/CFS Immune Cells” during the Metabolism webinar. Her talk starts at 58:32.

Maureen Hanson presented “Chronic infection in ME/CFS: non-Herpes viruses” during the Chronic Infections webinar. Her talk starts at 1:01:25.

Ludovic Giloteaux presented “Extracellular vesicles” during the Physiology webinar. His talk starts at 3:15:10.

The NIH ME/CFS Center presents lectures at “Advancing ME/CFS Research: Identifying Targets for Intervention and Learning from Long COVID”

NIH held a hybrid online conference on the NIH campus on December 11-12, 2023. Center personnel attending in person were Claire McNally, Annie Gardella, David Iu, Jessica Maya, Tien Luyen (“Louis”) Vu, Katherine Glass, Arnaud Germain, Ludovic Giloteaux, Dawei Li, Andrew Grimson, and Maureen Hanson, as well as collaborator Nicholas Hampilos from Weill Cornell Medicine.

Both days of the conference are available online.

Videocast Day 1

Jessica Maya’s presentation “Investigating T cell populations for immune cell dysfunction in ME/CFS” starts at 3:50:10.

Videocast Day 2

Maureen Hanson’s presentation on “ME/CFS and long COVID: similarities and differences” starts at 1:03:00.

Andrew Grimson’s presentation on “Monocyte dysregulation in ME/CFS” starts at 1:37:35.

Nicholas Hampilos’ presentation on “Effect of Physical Exertion on CNS Oxidative Stress and Metabolism in ME/CFS” starts at 2:56:53.

Center trainees participate in the Symposium For Promoting The Advancement Of Research Knowledge In ME/CFS (SPARK ME)

NIH sponsored an early career researchers workshop on December 10, 2023 attended by Cornell graduate students Claire McNally Annie Gardella, and David Iu, postdoctoral associates Jessica Maya and Tien Luyen (“Louis”) Vu, and Research Associates Katherine Glass, Arnaud Germain and Ludovic Giloteaux. Drs. Glass and Maya helped organize the meeting.

Verbal presentations:

David Iu: Epigenetic Reprogramming of CD8+ T cell Populations Drives Exhaustion in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)

Tien Luyen Vu: Single-cell transcriptomics of ME/CFS circulating immune system before and after symptom provocation

Poster presentations:

Anne Gardella: Cell-free RNA signatures of myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome

Ludovic Giloteaux: Extracellular vesicle protein cargo in ME/CFS cases and controls following maximal exercise

Arnaud Germain: Proteomic adjustments following induction of post-exertional malaise

Claire McNally: Investigating the role of iNOS in endothelial dysfunction in ME/CFS

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.