ME/CFS Research at the Quadram Institute, Norwich, UK

Andy

Andy

Retired committee member
Not new News, but as we didn't have a dedicated thread for this topic I thought I'd create one.

There is a pressing need for biomedical research into ME/CFS, and within the Quadram Institute and the wider Norwich Research Park we have the interdisciplinary expertise needed to better understand this complex disease.

Our research builds on recent evidence that ME/CFS has a basis in the immune system. Our focus is on the interactions between the immune system and the microbiota in the gut. Many ME sufferers also have gut-related conditions and several studies have recorded altered microbiota communities.
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https://quadram.ac.uk/targets/me-cfs/

Profile for research leader, Prof Simon Carding
The overarching objective of our research is to understand how a healthy gut is established and maintained throughout life. We want to understand how this healthy state is altered in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (e.g. IBD), as well as diseases elsewhere in the body (e.g. ME/CFS) including other organ systems such as the brain, where we are exploring the gut-brain axis and dementia.
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https://quadram.ac.uk/simon-carding/

And his personal Quadram Institute profile, https://quadram.ac.uk/people/simon-carding/

Recent papers that he was a named author on that are, or may be, of interest. (Not intended to be an exhaustive list).
Review article: Does the microbiome and virome contribute to myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome?
https://www.s4me.info/threads/revie...ic-fatigue-syndrome-2018-newberry-et-al.2871/

Review article: Fantastic voyage: the journey of intestinal microbiota-derived microvesicles through the body
https://www.s4me.info/threads/fanta...les-through-the-body-2019-carding-et-al.9834/
 
It would be very fortunate if it helped explain, at least in part, the mechanism of IBS, as there seems to be many similarities. IBS a clear target for the MUS cult, because not a single lesson was learned from the peptic ulcers / H. pylori debacle, and things will only get worse if they are allowed to get a grip on it.
 
At the recent IIMEC14 International ME Conference in London Professor Simon Carding announced plans formulated with Invest in ME Research to make real progress in research into ME.
  • GP Fellowship Scheme
  • faecal microbiome transplantation study
  • joint UK-Swedish PhD studentship
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http://www.investinme.org/IIMER-Newslet-190603CentreNews.shtml

and my recent Q&A with Prof Carding that includes discussion of those things, https://www.s4me.info/threads/video...on-carding-quadram-institute-june-2019.10186/
 
GP Fellowship to develop ME/CFS champions for Norfolk

The Quadram Institute and the charity Invest in ME Research are partnering with Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to provide a GP Fellowship aimed at improving outcomes for patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) in Norfolk and Waveney.

ME/CFS is a debilitating, chronic condition that has serious, long-term effects on health. It’s characterised by extreme post-exercise muscle fatigue, often accompanied by muscle and joint pain, headaches and cognitive impairment. In severe cases sufferers may be housebound or bedbound for long periods. The causes remain unknown, and treatment options are limited.

The GP Fellowship will allow a GP to develop skills and personal and professional development in the specialist area of ME/CFS.
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https://quadram.ac.uk/gp-fellowship-me-cfs/

ETA:


 
MA Photography student's work on display at ME conference

Falmouth Flexible MA Photography student Yasmin Crawford has been working with researchers in the Quadram Institute as part of her project that’s bringing across how Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) affects every aspect of people’s lives.

Yasmin has a background in the life sciences and healthcare, but her career in this area was curtailed when she was diagnosed with ME in 2013. As part of her path to recovery, she decided to do an online masters degree with Falmouth University.

Her MA work has explored many aspects of ME by using photography and the visual arts to express the hidden impacts of the condition.

According to Yasmin, “the MA from Falmouth University is a flexible and online course over two years and has given me the skills to visually communicate a lack of awareness and understanding around this debilitating condition, one that is still associated with much stigma today. It has become a way of creating a new life for myself within the visual arts and one I am able to fit around my illness.”

For her final dissertation, Yasmin wanted to look at how to communicate the research that is going into ME. Researchers at the Quadram Institute, undertaking biomedical research into the disease, became the focus of her project.

Yasmin’s work will be on display at the 14th Invest in ME Research International ME Conference at the end of May. This conference brings together researchers, clinicians, healthcare professionals and patients – including some of the QI researchers.
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https://flexible.falmouth.ac.uk/abo...ents-work-on-display-at-me-conference_270.htm

The Royal Photographic Society’s 2019 Science Photographer Of The Year Shortlist
Mapping Oxygen by Yasmin Crawford, her final major project for an MA in photography at Falmouth University, which focused on examining the research behind myalgic encephalomyelitis. Through exploration of perspective, complexities and scientific multidisciplinary collaborations, Crawford says she creates imagery that explains, reveals and connects us consciously to the ambiguous and unknown. (Photo by Yasmin Crawford/2019 Science Photographer of the Year/RPS)
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https://designyoutrust.com/2019/08/...9-science-photographer-of-the-year-shortlist/

(note: also featured in the Guardian)
 
Prof Carding’s boots are made for walking
22nd April 2022

Quadram Institute scientist Professor Simon Carding is swapping a lab coat for walking boots to raise money for research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

SimonCardingwalk-300x225.jpeg
In June, Simon and his wife Jane (pictured left) will be walking from the Irish Sea to the North Sea on the challenging 192-mile walk from St Bees on the Cumbrian coast to Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire. Training has already started!

The Coast-to-Coast Walk passes through three national parks: Lake District National Park, Yorkshire Dales National Park, and North York Moors National Park and involves strenuous climbs and long stretches of walking up to 23 miles in one day.

Professor Carding, who is also Professor of Mucosal Immunology at the Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, leads the Gut Microbes in Health research programme at the Quadram Institute and part of his research is focused on ME/CFS, a severely debilitating condition thought to affect up to 250,000 people in the UK.”
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https://quadram.ac.uk/blogs/prof-cardings-boots-are-made-for-walking/
 
Dr Katharine Seton

I am a postdoctoral research scientist with a background in immunology and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) research.

I obtained a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from Newcastle University in 2016. During my undergraduate degree I was awarded a vacation scholarship from the Wellcome Trust which was used to study the heritability of ME/CFS over 8 weeks. After obtaining my BSc I moved to Norwich to undertake a PhD based at the Quadram Institute, which was funded by the UK charity Invest in ME Research. My PhD investigated the immune response to gut microbes in ME/CFS patients.

I am now at the Quadram Institute as an immunology research scientist in the Gut Microbes and Health programme where my principle role is to determine whether ME/CFS patients have premature ageing of the immune system because of chronic exposure to gut microbes. I will be working on the phase IIb clinical trial of faecal microbiota transplantation in ME/CFS patients (RESTORE-ME study).
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https://quadram.ac.uk/people/katherine-seton/
 
Dr Katharine Seton receives funding to expand ME research

"Katharine Seton from the Quadram Institute has been awarded a Solve M.E. Ramsay Research Grant to better understand premature ageing of the immune system in people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).

The grant will build on current studies linking the immune response to gut microbes. It’s hoped that this will lead to therapies that target the gut microbiome to alleviate ME/CFS symptoms and improve the lives of people with ME/CFS."

https://quadram.ac.uk/katharine-seton-receives-funding-to-expand-me-research/
 
Merged thread

Prescriber article

Realising the potential of faecal microbiota transplant


Angela Dowden

First published: 22 February 2023

Free full text:
https://wchh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/psb.2043

Extract:
At the Quadram Institute in Norwich, ethical applications and MHRA trial licence applications are being prepared in anticipation of a clinical trial, beginning mid-2023, that will evaluate the use of FMT in people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Professor Simon Carding, who will lead the study, supported by the UK Invest in ME Research Charity, explains: “Considering that a significant proportion of ME/CFS patients date the onset of their symptoms to a GI illness, with abdominal pain, diarrhoea and sometimes vomiting, FMT may be helpful in these patients.

“Recent studies identifying changes in the bacteria and viral component of the faecal microbiome in ME/CFS patients have led to the suggestion that intestinal microbial dysbiosis contributes to GI symptoms such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) seen in more than 90% of ME/CFS patients.

“A study undertaken in a single centre in Australia has already reported significant clinical improvement in 70% of ME/CFS patients administered an FMT.”

About this journal
Prescriber is the leading UK journal for healthcare professionals focussing on prescribing and medicines management. The journal features articles on all areas of therapeutics and prescribing policy and it is fully peer reviewed. The content is relevant and of interest to all prescribers and prescribing policy makers including GPs, pharmacists, nurses and hospital specialists.
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Last edited by a moderator:
Amw66 said:
https://quadram.ac.uk/organ-on-chip-system-to-study-the-gut-brain-axis/


Researchers have developed a new multiple organ-on-chip system to help study how neurotoxins move from the gut to the brain.
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I remember when they first started looking at faecal transplants and my husband remarking that it would be typical of me to have an illness where this could end up being one of the treatments. :laugh:

He passed away 10 years ago.

I wonder how much research funding has gone to BPS research into IBS symptoms during that time and talking therapies in the UK?
 
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