CENTER FOR
INFECTION & IMMUNITY
W. Ian Lipkin, MD
John Snow Professor of Epidemiology and Director
Professor of Neurology & Pathology
College of Physicians & Surgeons
18 October 2018
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
The Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) has been committed to ME/CFS research since 2010. We
began this research with generous support from the Chronic Fatigue Initiative of the Hutchins Family
Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Microbe Discovery Project.
In 2017, the CII was selected to host one of three NIH centers funded for collaborative research into the
biology of this disease. The Center for Solutions for ME/CFS (CfS for ME/CFS) includes representatives
from #MEAction and Solve ME/CFS as well as clinical and basic scientists drawn from leading academic
institutions and clinical sites across the United States.
Our studies of blood, cerebrospinal fluid, saliva and feces, using state-of-the-art methods that include
microbial gene sequencing, metabolomics, proteomics, and immunological profiling, confirm that patients
with ME/CFS have biological abnormalities that cannot be characterized as psychosomatic.
Committees convened by the National Academies of Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also concluded that ME/CFS is not a psychosomatic
disorder.
We are committed to actively investigating the causes of immunological and metabolic abnormalities in
ME/CFS. Our hope is that this work will enable insights that lead to treatments.
Sincerely,
W. Ian Lipkin, MD
Director, Center for Infection & Immunity
Director, Center or Solutions for ME/CFS
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