Announcing OMF's First ME/CFS Clinical Trial!

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Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS) Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia Leading Research. Delivering Hope.Open Medicine Foundation® Canada

Driving research of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS),
Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia and Long COVID.

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Wishing you a season full of HOPE from your OMFCA family!

Artwork generously provided by Lynn B, artist & person with ME/CFS

Dear Friends,

We would like to take a moment to wish you and your loved ones a season full of hope and peace.

We are grateful that you are part of our OMFCA family! It is thanks to you that we are working around the clock – and around the globe – to urgently find treatments and a cure for ME/CFS and related multi-system chronic, complex diseases (msCCD).

We will never give up until effective treatments are found, and millions can have healthier, happier tomorrows. Hold on to the HOPE. 

With warmth and gratitude,

OMF staff, OMF Board of Directors, and Scientific Advisory Board


During this season of hope, we would like to share a powerful poem from severe ME/CFS patient Whitney Dafoe to inspire and give strength to our commun

A Thanksgiving Message of Hope from Severe ME/CFS Patient Whitney Dafoe

Dear Severe ME/CFS,

You can’t have my life, and you can’t have me. I can withstand anything you have to give and more. I will always rise above you. 

You can take my friends and relationships, but you can never take my love.

You can take my career but you can never take my worth.

You can take my ability to make things, but you can never take creativity from me.

You can take food away from me, but you can never take self-nourishment.

You can keep me in bed, but you can never confine me. You can disable me, but you can never define me.

You can take the functionality of my brain, but you can never take my mind.

You can take away my ability to move, but you can never stop me.

You can inflict immeasurable pain that never ends, but you can never take the peace I hold within.

You can instill fear in all of my senses that makes me cower from the world, but you can never take away the beauty of the world.

You can take all things meaningful to me, but you can never take my purpose.

You can make me suffer, but you can never stop the joy I hold in my heart.

You can make me wish, but you can never make me beg.

You can take everything but my life, but I will always endure.

Because I am better than you. You will linger for a time and you will try your best to stop me and end me, but I am boundless. I will rise while you fall to ashes and one day cease to exist.

You think you’re a monster? I am the monster. I will conquer you and destroy you. I am master of all things. I am life. Endless life.

I am a Severe ME/CFS Patient and I have never been stronger than in this moment right now. I am an all powerful, living, breathing, soul. You will never stomp me out.

Sincerely,
Whitney Dafoe

Consent management

Consent Preferences

Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) Form 

Microvesicles and viral sequencing
Microvesicles are a type of extracellular vesicle that is released from the cell membrane. Vesicles are small, fluid-filled sacs or vacuoles within the body. Sequencing is a technique used to determine the exact sequence of bases (A, C, G, and T) in a DNA (or viral) molecule.
NMR Metabolomics
NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) is an instrument/tool used to perform metabolic studies, metabolic profiling, and metabolomics in biofluids and tissues for more than 40 years using magnetic fields. There is a very close connection between metabolic measurements and NMR. This connection has flourished because of NMR’s many unique strengths for characterizing complex mixtures’ chemical composition.
Proteomics
The large-scale study of proteins, which are large, complex molecules that are required for structure, function, and regulation of the human body's tissues and organs.
Immune cell profiling
The immune system has many important regulatory roles in disease development and progression. Given the emergence of effective immune therapies, reliable predictors of response are needed. Immune cell profiling determines response by evaluating immune cell populations from treated and untreated samples. For our purposes, we will evaluate the white blood cell response to the viral infection using a process called “Cytof.”
Leukocyte Genomics
A leukocyte is a colorless cell circulating in the blood and body fluids and is involved in counteracting foreign substances and disease. A genome is all genetic material of an organism. Genomics is a biology field focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. Therefore, leukocyte genomics is the study of all genetic material of leukocytes.
Metabolomics
Metabolomics is a way to study metabolism – that is, through measuring amounts of the metabolites (small molecules) produced by our bodies as we convert food into energy and other molecules that our cells need to survive. Metabolomics technology is ‘large-scale,’ meaning that several thousand metabolites can be measured from a single sample of e.g., blood or urine.
Micro RNA
Cells use Micro RNA to control whether a particular gene is making too much, too little or the normal amount of its protein at a particular time.
Autoantibodies
Antibodies that react with self-molecules and that occur in healthy individuals and are referred to as natural antibodies or autoantibodies.
Extracellular DNA for viral reactivation and Mitochondrial DNA
exDNA (extracellular DNA), exDNA is often secreted actively and is used to perform several tasks, thereby offering an attractive target or tool for biotechnological, medical, environmental, and general microbiological applications. Viruses are intracellular parasites that rely to a significant extent on the host cell for replication. Viral reactivation occurs when an active replication of the viral genome results in a lytic (degradation of the cell) infection characterized by the release of new progeny (descendant) virus particles.