Mary Ann Fletcher

Mary Ann Fletcher, Ph.D., is the first Schemel Professor for Neuro Immune Medicine at the Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Previously, she spent 40 years at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine as a Professor of Medicine, Microbiology/Immunology and Psychology. She holds two U.S. Patents for developing tests to determine if a person has mononucleosis. Currently her research focus has been on the identification of diagnostic biomarkers in ME/CFS, Gulf War Illness and other multi-complex illnesses.

Education

 * Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Texas Tech University
 * Master of Science in Immunology and Virology from University of Texas Medical School
 * Doctor of Philosophy in Immunochemistry from Baylor University
 * Postdoctoral research at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee
Dr. Fletcher was a voting member of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee, for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, from June 13, 2012 to December 13, 2016.

Open Letter to The Lancet
Two open letters to the editor of The Lancet urged the editor to commission a fully independent review of the PACE trial, which the journal had published in 2011. In 2016, Dr. Fletcher, along with 41 colleagues in the ME/CFS field, signed the second letter.
 * 10 February 2016, An open letter to The Lancet, again - Virology blog

ME/CFS Common Data Element (CDE) Project
Member of the Immune Working Group of the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Common Data Element (CDE) Project sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Notable studies in ME/CFS

 * 1994, Dysregulated expression of tumor necrosis factor in chronic fatigue syndrome: interrelations with cellular sources and patterns of soluble immune mediator expression (Abstract)
 * 1995, Relationships of Cognitive Difficulties to Immune Measures, Depression and Illness Burden in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Abstract)
 * 1995, Physical symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome are exacerbated by the stress of Hurricane Andrew (Abstract)
 * 1995, Dysregulated Expression of Soluble Immune Mediator Receptors in a Subset of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Cross-Sectional Categorization of Patients by Immune Status (Abstract)
 * 1996, Interindividual Immune Status Variation Patterns in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Association with Gender and the Tumor Necrosis Factor System (Abstract)
 * 1998, Interleukin-6 and Disease: Two Case Reports that Point to the Usefulness of Measuring Cytokine Levels in Clinical Settings (Abstract)
 * 2000, Comparative Analysis of Lymphocytes in Lymph Nodes and Peripheral Blood of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Abstract)
 * 2000, Clinical and Immunologic Effects of Autologous Lymph Node Cell Transplant in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Abstract)
 * 2000, Immunotherapy of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Therapeutic Interventions Aimed at Modulating the Th1/Th2 Cytokine Expression Balance (Abstract)
 * 2000, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Evidence Supporting the Hypothesis of a Behaviorally-Activated Neuromodulator of Fatigue (Abstract)
 * 2001, Cytokine and Other Immunologic Markers in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Their Relation to Neuropsychological Factors (Abstract)
 * 2002, Effects of Benzalkonium Salts on G-protein-Mediated Processes and Surface Membranes: Relevance to Microbial- and Chemical-Induced Diseases (Abstract)
 * 2002, The Paul-Bunnell Heterophile Antibody Determinant in Epstein-Barr Virus-Associated Disease (Abstract)
 * 2007, Baseline Cortisol Levels Predict Treatment Outcomes in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Nonpharmacologic Clinical Trial (Full Text)
 * 2008, The associations between basal salivary cortisol levels and illness symptomatology in chronic fatigue syndrome (Full text)
 * 2008, Evidence for T-helper 2 shift and association with illness parameters in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) (Full Text)
 * 2009, Plasma cytokines in women with chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2010, A Formal Analysis of Cytokine Networks in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Full Text
 * 2010, Plasma neuropeptide Y: a biomarker for symptom severity in chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2010, A Comparison of Immune Functionality in Viral versus Non-Viral CFS Subtypes (Full Text)
 * 2010, Biomarkers in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Evaluation of Natural Killer Cell Function and Dipeptidyl Peptidase IV/CD26 (Full Text)
 * 2012, Biomarkers for chronic fatigue (Full Text)
 * 2012, Cytokine expression profiles of immune imbalance in post-mononucleosis chronic fatigue (Full Text)
 * 2014, Stress management skills, cortisol awakening response, and post-exertional malaise in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2014, A Role for Homeostatic Drive in the Perpetuation of Complex Chronic Illness: Gulf War Illness and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2015, Perceived Fatigue Interference and Depressed Mood: Comparison of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Patients with Fatigued Breast Cancer Survivors (Full Text)
 * 2015, Findings from a clinical and laboratory database developed for discovery of pathogenic mechanisms in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (Abstract)
 * 2016, Poor sleep quality is associated with greater circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines and severity and frequency of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) symptoms in women (Full Text)
 * 2016, Tracking post-infectious fatigue in clinic using routine Lab tests (Full Text)
 * 2016, Illness progression in chronic fatigue syndrome: a shifting immune baseline (Full Text)
 * 2017, Telephone-administered versus live group cognitive behavioral stress management for adults with CFS (Full Text)
 * 2017, Depression, evening salivary cortisol and inflammation in chronic fatigue syndrome: A psychoneuroendocrinological structural regression model (Abstract)
 * 2018, Identification of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-associated DNA methylation patterns (Full Text)
 * 2019, From biomarkers to targeted treatment: The myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and gulf war illness (GWI) story
 * 2019, Leveraging Prior Knowledge of Endocrine Immune Regulation in the Therapeutically Relevant Phenotyping of Women With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Abstract)
 * 2019, Pharmaceutical Interventions in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Literature-based Commentary (Abstract)

Online presence

 * PubMed
 * Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine Leadership Webpage