Research Appreciation Day 2025 – Research Highlights

Since the last Research Appreciation Day on the 5^th of July 2024, researchers involved in ME Research UK-funded studies have made great strides in their work, including:  

• Dr. Sarah Annesley, who is currently working on research funded by ME Research UK, wrote an article for ‘The Conversation’ titled “It’s not just chronic fatigue: ME/CFS is much more than being tired.” 

• Prof. Brett Lidbury at the Australian National University, and colleagues at various other institutions in Australia and Colombia, published the findings of an ME Research UK-funded study in which they analysed the whole-exome sequences (i.e. all the regions of genes that provide instructions for making proteins) of 77 people with ME/CFS. 

• Prof. Elisa Oltra, Dr Karen Giménez-Orenga and colleagues at the University of Valencia published findings from their ME Research UK-funded study investigating human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) in ME/CFS.  

• Dr Rob Wüst – who secured funding from ME Research UK for project investigating muscle microclots and microvascular pathology – was interviewed by Dr David Tuller about his team’s research which compares the effects of exercise on people with ME/CFS and those with Long Covid, with the effects on healthy controls who were deconditioned after 60 days of bedrest. 

• Dr Amy Proal – who is currently conducting a study  identifying viruses in tissue and nerve samples from ME/CFS patients – funded by ME Research UK with the financial support of the Gordon Parish Charitable Trust – spoke at the ‘PolyBio Spring 2025 Symposium’, which took place on the 16^th of May 2025 and has been made available on YouTube. 

• Professor Chris Ponting and Gemma Samms published a paper which identified biological signatures in the blood of people with ME/CFS. This paper, which acknowledges ME Research UK as funders, has been widely covered in the media, including BBC News, The Times and Sunday Times, and the Independent.  

• Gemma Samms, a PhD researcher investigating genetic risk factors for ME/CFS under the supervision of Professor Chris Ponting, published an important paper estimating that approximately 404,000 UK individuals (0.6% of the population) may have ME/CFS. The results of this ME Research UK-funded study will be instrumental in redefining the prevalence rate of ME/CFS in the UK. Press coverage of this paper has been extensive and included articles in the Guardian and The Times.  

• Jente Van Campenhout – a student working on PhD level research funded by ME Research UK at Vrije Universiteit Brussel – and colleagues, published a review summarising the evidence connecting energy metabolism (the process of energy production and utilisation in the body) and dysfunction of the immune system in people with ME/CFS. 

• A team of researchers including Dr Kiran Thapaliya, Professor Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, and Dr Natalie Eaton-Fitch who are carrying out research tracking changes in the structure and function of the brain over time in ME/CFS, funded by ME Research UK, published a review on the existing evidence relating to quality of life in people with ME/CFS and those with “post COVID-19 condition”. 

• A research team including Professor Simon Carding – who is currently leading a a project  funded by ME Research UK, published an article reviewing evidence on relationship between infection, inflammation, and cognitive dysfunction – brain fog, in people with ME/CFS. 

• Prof. Jarred Younger – the principal investigator of an ME Research UK-funded project tracking peripheral immune cell infiltration of the brain in ME/CFS – and Chloe Lisette Jones, published a paper considering which characteristics, including self-reported “race”, are associated with receiving an ME/CFS diagnosis. 

• ABC News in Australia reported on the results of an ME Research UK-funded study, carried out by Kiran Thapaliya and colleagues at Griffith University, which found hippocampus enlargement in people with ME/CFS and in those with long COVID.  

• Dr Krista Clarke and colleagues at the University of Surrey, along with members of the ME/CFS Biobank team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, published a review looking at potential blood-based diagnostic markers for ME/CFS – the groups research is jointly funded by ME Research UK and the ME Association Ramsay Research Fund.  

• Dr Nuno Sepúlveda – who completed his ME Research UK-funded project looking at the potential role of Epstein-Barr virus infection in the development of ME/CFS in 2023, published a conference paper entitled “When PACE-Gate Meets Sample Size Calculations”. 

• In 2024, Tina Katsaros – a PhD student at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia working on research funded by ME Research UK, organised a festive online community event to bring together people with lived experience of ME/CFS and researchers in the field. 

• Dr Nuno Sepúlveda and Dr Francisco Westermeier – researchers who have previously led projects funded by ME Research UK, wrote a letter to the editor of the Journal of Infection highlighting potential methodological issues with a systematic review which concluded that 51% of people with long COVID met ME/CFS diagnostic criteria.  

• Tina Katsaros was interviewed for Breakthrough magazine and told ME Research UK more about herself, her project, what led her to be involved ME/CFS research – and what she has learned so far. 

• Rob Wüst of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam was awarded a grant from the Netherland’s ZonMw for his research project entitled, ‘From sick to sicker with exercise: deciphering the base of post-exertional malaise in post-COVID’.  

• Jolien Hendrix, a PhD researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel who is involved in research supported by ME Research UK, wrote a blog post entitled “when exercise puts your health at risk” for ‘Eos Blogs’.  

• ME Research UK awarded funding to Associate Professor Leighton Barnden at Griffith University in Australia for a study aiming to track changes in the structure and function of the brain over time in people with ME/CFS. 

• Tina Katsaros entered the ‘Visualise Your Thesis’ competition at La Trobe University, and her video won both the People’s Choice Award and overall runner-up prize. 

• Dr Krista Clarke – a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Surrey, carrying out a research study, co-funded by ME Research UK and the ME Association, assessing the electrical properties of white blood cells in ME/CFS wrote an article for ME Research UK discussing her PhD work on the electrophysiological properties of cells, and how this has led on to her research in ME/CFS. 

• Speakers at the 2024 Unite To Fight conference included ME Research UK-funded researchers past and present; Prof. Carmen Scheibenbogen, Dr. Rob Wüst, Dr Amy Proal, and Prof. Bupesh Prusty.   

• Dr Amy Proal took part in an online discussion – hosted by the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York – on pathogen reactivation.