The Whittemore Peterson Institute

Based in Nevada in the USA, the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro Immune Disease exists to bring discovery, knowledge, and effective treatments to patients with illnesses that are caused by acquired dysregulation of both the immune system and the nervous system, often resulting in life long disease and disability.

The goals of the Whittemore Peterson Institute include:

To facilitate and advance patient care; Research the pathophysiology of neuro-immune diseases such as ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, atypical MS, and autism;Develop therapeutics, diagnostics and prevention strategies for this spectrum of diseases; and To advance and support medical education and physician training.

The spectrum of neuro-immune diseases including: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), Atypical MS, Fibromyalgia and Gulf War Syndrome share common abnormalities in the innate immune response, which result in chronic immune activation and immune deficiency.

A study by the Whittemore Peterson Institute in 2009 detected the retroviral infection XMRV in greater than 95% of the more than 200 ME/CFS, Fibromylagia and atypical MS patients tested. The current working hypothesis is that XMRV infection of B, T, NK and other cells of the innate immune response causes chronic inflammation and immune deficiency resulting in an inability to mount an effective immune response to opportunistic infections

For more information about the Institute, click here.

The European Society for ME (ESME)

The European Society for ME, or 'ESME', is a 'think tank' of top scientists from relevant fields who discuss current ME knowledge in order to determine the most crucial direction of future research, and to provide a reliable source of cutting-edge ME information that ESME will incorporate in the education of medical professionals.

ESME will encourage research leading to the accumulation of new knowledge and to a better understanding of the disease, and will endeavour to raise funding for biomedical research in, and education about, ME/CFS.