As the only institution outside Europe in a new major international research initiative, Western will serve as a key partner in the efforts to improve diagnosis and accelerate treatment and development for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
DISCOVER-ME – the collaboration led by MedUni Vienna and funded through the European Union’s Horizon Europe program, receiving €7.5 million ($12,171,525 CAD) – will see researchers, including Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry professor Dr. Douglas Fraser, investigate the biological mechanisms underlying the disease and support the development of more targeted approaches to care.
ME/CFS is a chronic, debilitating disease affecting an estimated 17 to 24 million people worldwide, although emerging research suggests the true number may be substantially higher.
It impacts the immune, nervous and endocrine systems, as well as the body’s ability to regulate and produce energy. A defining feature of the illness is post-exertional malaise, in which even minor physical or mental activity can trigger a significant and often delayed worsening of symptoms. Despite its impact on patients and families, there are currently no validated laboratory tests or biomarkers to support diagnosis, so major questions remain about the underlying biological mechanisms that cause the disease.
“Being invited to join this international consortium is an incredible opportunity for Western to help uncover the biological causes of ME/CFS and accelerate the development of new, more effective treatments,” said Dr. Fraser, GSK Chair in Clinical Pharmacology at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
The project will collect and analyze clinical and biological data from more than 700 ME/CFS patients and nearly 200 control participants, alongside 2,000 detailed clinical datasets.
As part of the consortium, Fraser and Western computer science professor Mark Daley and their teams will investigate changes across immune function, metabolism, hormonal regulation and mitochondrial activity – namely the processes that cells rely on to generate energy.
Western will serve as one of the consortium’s key analytical hubs. Blood samples collected across Europe will be analyzed at Western using state-of-the-art analysis techniques combined with advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence. Those approaches include proteomics and metabolomics, which are complementary, molecular analysis techniques used to study biological systems at the protein and small-molecule metabolite levels.
“Few centres in the world can integrate sophisticated laboratory science, computational biology and clinical expertise under one roof like Western. That unique capability allows us to generate insights much more rapidly than would otherwise be possible,” said Fraser, adding participation in the consortium reflects both the scale of the challenge and the opportunity to advance understanding of post-viral disease.
Fraser is a world-renowned expert in developing and evaluating optimal disease treatments, having previously investigated long COVID, severe traumatic brain injury and pediatric sepsis. Daley, who serves as Western’s chief AI officer, is an international leader in natural computing, computational neuroscience and bioinformatics.
“Our experience leading the world’s largest precision medicine clinical trial for long COVID demonstrated what’s possible when researchers around the world work together toward a common goal,” said Fraser, a Western Institute for Neuroscience faculty member. “By bringing that proven framework to ME/CFS, we have an opportunity to transform our understanding of the disease and move much closer to targeted, effective treatments.”
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Western is key analytical hub
DISCOVER-ME brings together leading European and international partners, including Western, MedUni Vienna, Imperial College London, Quadram Institute Bioscience and the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), to take an integrated approach to understanding the disease.Douglas Fraser (Christopher Kindratsky)
