Chris Ponting

We have some genetic sleuth work to share with you! What started as a rotation project turned into nothing short of an amazing collaboration between 4 labs in the zoo that is @basicsci.fredhutch.org. We found an essential histone chaperone long thought to be missing in most animals 🕵️‍♂️
bit.ly/4uf8sxz

"Those with ME have experienced years of being treated unjustly. Sometimes, it feels endless and irreversible. But remember this: getting things done in parliament starts with having MPs on your side." Tessa Munt MP. New #ThereForME Substack post.

We're delighted to share today's #ThereForME blog from friend of the campaign @tessamunt.bsky.social.

In her blog, Tessa lays out the case for change and how to get involved.

Link in next post 👇

Speakers include Christopher Armstrong, Chris Ponting @cgatist.bsky.social , Oystein Fluge, David Putrino @putrinolab.bsky.social , Carmen Scheibenbogen @scheibenbogen.bsky.social , and many other ME/CFS experts.
#MEcfs #LongCovid

In the programme, BBC health correspondent James Gallagher interviews Prof Chris Pointing @cgatist.bsky.social
(#DecodeME), Prof Rosemary Boyton (#RosettaStoneStudy), Prof Sir Stephen Holgate and case studies Catherine and Jo | BBC R4 | www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
#mecfs #me/cfs #MyalgicE

BBC Radio 4 - Inside Health, Is the tide turning on ME research? The new wave of ME research that could bring clarity to this perplexing condition.

Great to see this. Should be interesting.

BBC Radio 4

Tuesday February 24th at 9.30am

Inside Health:
“Is the tide turning on ME research”? (28 minutes)
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

#MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #MEcfs #CFS #PwME

Image of a DNA double helix against a soft blue background with light particles. The Action for ME logo appears in the top right corner. Text on the image reads: “Research News – SequenceME and Long Covid study launches. The world’s largest long-read, whole-genome study of any disease.”

Quote from Action for ME CEO Sonya Chowdhury.

Quote from Complex Disorders Alliance CEO Amy Rochlin.

Quote from Schmidt Iniative for Long Covid CEO Dr John Redd

Today we’re delighted to launch Sequence ME & Long Covid - the world’s largest long-read, whole-genome study of any disease 🔬
🧬 This £20 million ground breaking initiative will explore the root causes of ME and Long Covid, with the aim of accelerating progress towards diagnostics and treatments.

UK ME/CFS Alliance holding 20th Anniversary event “Stronger Together” Described as “a symposium of UK and international scientists, clinicians, stakeholders, ME charities, ME/CFS patients, their families and supporters, to discuss the next strategic steps of ME research” this will include presentations from Prof. Sir Stephen Holgate, Prof. Chris Ponting, Prof. Danny Altmann, Prof. Nisreen Alwen, Dr. Karl Morten, Dr Carmen Scheibenbogen, Dr. Rob Wust and Dr Nancy Klimas. The event will be at The Pavillion, Winchester Cathedral, 4th March 2026: 10.30-4.00 with tickets priced at £25/£20

2/
UK ME/CFS Alliance holding 20th Anniversary event “Stronger Together” with @cgatist.bsky.social, @daltmann.bsky.social , @nisreenalwan.bsky.social , et al

mecfsalliance.org.uk

Screenshot from Science for ME weekly update

#MEcfs #CFS #PwME #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #ChronicFatigueSyndrome

Is scientific reform an unwinnable arms race? Methodological improvements should, in theory, mean more robust evidence and inference, and more rapid advances in knowledge. However, these methods are often subsequently used in the pursuit of…

Improvements to methods should lead to more robust evidence and more rapid advances in knowledge. In their Perspective, Marcus Munafò & @mendelrandom.bsky.social look at why this hasn't been the case and what can be done about it #AcademicSky 🧪

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

🔬 Conférence scientifique internationale – EM/SFC & syndrome post-COVID !
Sur 2 jours, elle mettra en lumière les dernières avancées sur les mécanismes pathologiques et les résultats d’essais cliniques évaluant les traitements de l’EM et du syndrome post-COVID.

How The Shingles Vaccine Protects Against Dementia The mechanisms behind varicella zoster virus-induced dementia pathology

This is the first time that I’ve seen an actual, mechanistic explanation for how the shingles vaccine may protect against dementia. Very interesting! If you’re in your 50s, definitely get your vaccine.

profbubak.substack.com/p/how-the-sh...

WE HAVE A DIAGNOSIS FOR PETER Many year-end reflections from executives include metrics, milestones, lessons learned, and gratitude for teams. This one is different.

This is a really impactful blog from Gregory Moore on his adult son with a very rare genetic condition, the impact of the diagnostic odyssey and the diagnosis itself, and the power of #genomics and Dr Seuss.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-hav...

@tessamunt.bsky.social did you speak to @ashleydaltonmp.bsky.social on this?

Savannah cannot wait for a new service. She has been without nutrition for 8 WEEKS in constant agony and is literally dying.

You MUST force the hospital to listen to her expert & restore pain meds and nutrition.

#mecfs

✅ The UK Government has today granted access to half a million UK Biobank participants' coded GP data for health research.

This change will dramatically increase the power of UK Biobank's dataset to advance the diagnosis, treatment and management of conditions handled by GPs.

 ME CFS ALLIANCE mecfsalliance.org.uk To mark our 20th Anniversary The ME/CFS Alliance in collaboration with Professor Sir Stephen Holgate presents a symposium to discuss M.E. & LONG COVID RESEARCH 'STRONGER TOGETHER' Building the Network for The Next Strategic Steps Wednesday 4th March 2026 in The Pavilion at Winchester Cathedral 10.30am - 4.00pm A collaboration of UK and International Scientists, Clinicians, Stakeholders and M.E. Charities discussing the next vital strategic steps of M.E. research Ticket price £25, concessions £20* (includes lunch and a prize draw) For further information & tickets please email info@mecfsalliance.org.uk *concessions: low income & disabled

(Hampshire, England)
ME & Long Covid Research: "Stronger Together"

More info here:
mecfsalliance.org.uk

An impressive set of UK & international speakers for this March 4 event

#MEcfs #LongCovid #CFS #PwME #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #ChronicFatigueSyndrome

🧬 New preprint alert! After years of collaborative work across 52 datasets we are presenting eQTLGen phase 2: a genome-wide eQTL meta-analysis covering 43,301 blood samples: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/8)

YouTube video from Felipe Correa-da-Silva on their work described as "Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysfunction in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"

Fascinating preliminary finding: Correa-da-Silva et al. see a near-complete loss of CRH-neurons in 5 postmortem brain samples of people with #MEcfs, not seen in many controls. A corresponding loss of cortisol in the cerebrospinal fluid was also observed.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Dk... (7-13mins)

Quote from Gosia Trynka, Wellcome Sanger Institute and Biology at Scale committee member: "Linking variants to function at scale requires new tools and new ways of working together. Biology at Scale is designed to connect the communities needed to interpret complex traits. Abstract deadline: 20 April 2026

Share insights on using multimodal biological frameworks at #BiologyAtScale26 🧬

Contribute towards multidisciplinary knowledge exchange, and bridge gaps across genetics, cell biology, and human health.

📅 29 June -1 July 2026
Submit an abstract by 20 April ➡️ bit.ly/4mYud02

#ComplexTraits 🧪

I'm very proud to share this paper, the first from my fellowship. We took a lot of care to perform this replication as rigorously as possible and got the most definitive answer we could. Publishing null results can be challenging but is an essential step in establishing firm evidence.

Indistinguishable mitochondrial phenotypes after exposure of healthy myoblasts to myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome or control serum Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a disease of uncertain aetiology that affects up to 400,000 individuals in the UK. Exposure of cultured cells to the sera of people with ME...

1/3 Now published: We performed a large-scale replication testing the effect of serum from 67 pwME and 53 healthy donors on muscle cell mitochondria, revealing no significant differences. This suggests earlier results may not be true for people with ME in general. doi.org/10.1371/jour...

DNA-protein cross-links promote cGAS-STING–driven premature aging and embryonic lethality DNA-protein cross-links (DPCs) are highly toxic DNA lesions that block replication and transcription, but their impact on organismal physiology is unclear. We identified a role for the metalloprotease...

Unrepaired DNA-protein crosslinks cause a process that leads to premature aging and embryonic lethality in mice.

The findings in Science reveal a previously unrecognized link between defective DNA repair and immune-driven inflammatory disease. https://scim.ag/4qdZWf9

Functional Annotation of the Major Histocompatibility Complex Locus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.01.703124v1

I watched much of Ian Chapman's (Head of @ukri.org) appearance this morning at @ukparliament.parliament.uk Science, Innovation and Technology Committee..

A few points and new information that bioscientists may find interesting...

A 🧵

Single-Cell Atlas of Transcription and Chromatin States Reveals Regulatory Programs in the Human Brain https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703166v1

Today in @natgenet.nature.com, we report a saturation genome editing study that systematically dissects the degron of β-Catenin, which contains 5 of the 25 most frequently mutated regions of the human cancer genome, and >70 recurrent missense mutations.

rdcu.be/e1Tvk

Not for #MEcfs but for rheumatoid arthritis: Successful clinical trial of vagus nerve-mediated neuroimmune modulation: www.nature.com/articles/s41....
Question asked by Eric Topol and Kevin Tracey is: Can this be successfully applied to other diseases? bsky.app/profile/eric...

Vagus Nerve Stimulation and the Immune System Kevin Tracey, the pioneering neurosurgeon who discovered the connection, talks about the recent FDA approval for rheumatoid arthritis and where this is headed

1 minute of vagus nerve stimulation per day was recently FDA approved as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. A new Ground Truths podcast with Kevin J. Tracey who pioneered this field
erictopol.substack.com/p/vagus-nerv...

Every time someone uncritically repeats this meme about tens of thousands of undiscovered functional noncoding RNA genes in the human genome, an angel loses its wings.

Research Group Leader Do you want to lead groundbreaking research in computational biology? Join us at EMBL-EBI! EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is seeking talented and highly-motivated scientists to jo...

We are hiring for group leaders again — EBI is a great place to start your research group!

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/EMBL/job/Hin...

Intestinal macrophages modulate synucleinopathy along the gut–brain axis - Nature Muscularis macrophages, housekeepers of enteric nervous system integrity and intestinal homeostasis, modulate α-synuclein pathology and neurodegeneration in models of Parkinson’s disease, and understa...

Our paper is finally out!

We position intestinal muscularis macrophages as early initiators of α-synuclein pathology and dopaminergic neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s models. They also drive local CD4⁺ T cell expansion, which subsequently migrates from gut to brain

www.nature.com/articles/s41...