We are excited to announce that, thanks to two very generous grants, we have successfully secured $800,000—one-third of our goal—that will allow us to initiate a large-scale ME/CFS biomarker study (BioQuest)!
The Heart of the Matter
- OMF has received funding to start an ME/CFS biomarker study, called BioQuest.
- The goal of BioQuest is to identify a biomarker for ME/CFS that can be evaluated through a blood test and differentiate it from similar conditions.
- The study team plans to measure over 10,000 proteins and metabolites in blood samples of up to 1,200 patients and controls that have already been collected and stored.
- Additional funding is needed to ensure we can test all collected samples.
BioQuest: An ME/CFS Biomarker Study
We are excited to announce that, thanks to our generous donors, we have successfully secured $800,000—one-third of our goal—that will allow us to initiate a large-scale ME/CFS biomarker study (BioQuest)!
The lack of a diagnostic test for ME/CFS is a widely acknowledged problem for both patients and healthcare providers. Symptom-based diagnosis can not only be subjective, but overlap with other conditions, ultimately delaying diagnosis and clinical management of the disease. Therefore, the goal of BioQuest is to identify a biochemical signature for ME/CFS that can be conveniently evaluated through a blood test and would differentiate ME/CFS from other similar conditions.
Open Medicine Foundation is uniquely poised to conduct this study, with access to up to 1,200 patient and contrast control samples—including multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and autoimmune disorders—that are already collected and stored. In this study, the team will measure over 10,000 proteins and metabolites in these blood samples. Then, using bioinformatic and artificial intelligence techniques, they will try to identify a 5-20 protein/metabolite biomarker that is unique to ME/CFS.
With the initial funding we received, the study team can proceed with finalising the study design and obtaining the necessary approvals (the first stage of the research process) to begin testing a portion of the already collected samples.
