Jonas Blomberg

Jonas Blomberg, MD, PhD, (born 1944) is an Emeritus Professor at the Department of Medical Sciences, Clinical Microbiology, Uppsala University, Sweden. He is on the Advisory Board of the Gottfries Clinic, one of the couple of clinics in Sweden offering adequate biomedical treatment for Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS.

Education

• 1974 - MD, Göteborg University
• 1977 - PhD in Medical Biochemistry, Göteborg University
• 1979-1981 - Postdoctoral work on Retroviruses, National Cancer Institute, USA

Fields of Research

• Retroviruses: HIV, HTLV, XMRV and HERVs.
• Bioinformatics: Improving diagnostic methods for clinical microbiology, enhancing phylogenetic studies.
• Method development: Nucleic acid and Antibody based methods for detection of infection.
• Clinical Virology: Quality control, management of routine, search for infectious triggers of Myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue syndrome).

2017 Ramsay Award

A team comprised of Dr. Blomberg and Dr. Jonas Bergquist of Uppsala University and Dr. Carl-Gerhard Gottfries and Dr. Olof Zachrisson of the Gottfries Clinic were awarded a 2017 Ramsay Award grant from the Solve ME/CFS Initiative for research into biomarkers for initiation (infection) and metabolic derangement in ME/CFS.

Research on ME/CFS

• 2013, Epitopes of Microbial and Human Heat Shock Protein 60 and Their Recognition in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis FULL TEXT

  "Abstract: Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME, also called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), a common disease with chronic fatigability, cognitive dysfunction and myalgia of unknown etiology, often starts with an infection. The chaperonin human heat shock protein 60 (HSP60) occurs in mitochondria and in bacteria, is highly conserved, antigenic and a major autoantigen. The anti-HSP60 humoral (IgG and IgM) immune response was studied in 69 ME patients and 76 blood donors (BD) (the Training set) with recombinant human and E coli HSP60, and 136 30-mer overlapping and targeted peptides from HSP60 of humans, Chlamydia, Mycoplasma and 26 other species in a multiplex suspension array. Peptides from HSP60 helix I had a chaperonin-like activity, but these and other HSP60 peptides also bound IgG and IgM with an ME preference, theoretically indicating a competition between HSP60 function and antibody binding. A HSP60-based panel of 25 antigens was selected. When evaluated with 61 other ME and 399 non-ME samples (331 BD, 20 Multiple Sclerosis and 48 Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patients), a peptide from Chlamydia pneumoniae HSP60 detected IgM in 15 of 61 (24%) of ME, and in 1 of 399 non-ME at a high cutoff (p<0.0001). IgM to specific cross-reactive epitopes of human and microbial HSP60 occurs in a subset of ME, compatible with infection-induced autoimmunity.

• 2012, No evidence for xenotropic murine leukemia-related virus infection in Sweden using internally controlled multiepitope suspension array serology.
• 2011, Phylogeny-directed search for murine leukemia virus-like retroviruses in vertebrate genomes and in patients suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and prostate cancer.
• 2011, Murine gammaretrovirus group G3 was not found in Swedish patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.

Talks and Interviews

• 2014, 9th Invest in ME International ME Conference 2014 (no speech title given, but he discussed infection-induced autoimmunity in ME)DVD on conference
• 2013, Jonas Blomberg om sökande efter mikrobiella biomarkörer vid ME/CFS

Online Presence

• Wiki page (in Swedish)
• Uppsala University faculty page
• Twitter

See also

• Sweden

antibodies Antibody/immunoglobulin refers to any of a large number of specific proteins produced by B cells that act against an antigen in an immune response.

myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.) - A disease often marked by neurological symptoms, but fatigue is sometimes a symptom as well. Some diagnostic criteria distinguish it from chronic fatigue syndrome, while other diagnostic criteria consider it to be a synonym for chronic fatigue syndrome. A defining characteristic of ME is post-exertional malaise (PEM), or post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion (PENE), which is a notable exacerbation of symptoms brought on by small exertions. PEM can last for days or weeks. Symptoms can include cognitive impairments, muscle pain (myalgia), trouble remaining upright (orthostatic intolerance), sleep abnormalities, and gastro-intestinal impairments, among others. An estimated 25% of those suffering from ME are housebound or bedbound. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies ME as a neurological disease.

myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.) - A disease often marked by neurological symptoms, but fatigue is sometimes a symptom as well. Some diagnostic criteria distinguish it from chronic fatigue syndrome, while other diagnostic criteria consider it to be a synonym for chronic fatigue syndrome. A defining characteristic of ME is post-exertional malaise (PEM), or post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion (PENE), which is a notable exacerbation of symptoms brought on by small exertions. PEM can last for days or weeks. Symptoms can include cognitive impairments, muscle pain (myalgia), trouble remaining upright (orthostatic intolerance), sleep abnormalities, and gastro-intestinal impairments, among others. An estimated 25% of those suffering from ME are housebound or bedbound. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies ME as a neurological disease.

cognition Thought processes, including attention, reasoning, and memory.

etiology The cause of origin, especially of a disease.

antibodies Antibody/immunoglobulin refers to any of a large number of specific proteins produced by B cells that act against an antigen in an immune response.

genome an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes