Stephen Holgate

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Source:ME Association

Professor Stephen Holgate was the Chair of the UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative 2013-2020 and chair of the MRC-led ME expert group 2008-2011[1]. He is Medical Research Council Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology and Honorary Consultant Physician within Medicine at the University of Southampton, Southampton, England.[2]

He was knighted for services to medical research in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours List.[3]

Bio in Nature Reviews: "He received his medical degree from the University of London, UK, M.D. by thesis and D.Sc. from the University of Southampton. From 1978 to 1980 he spent a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, researching inflammatory mechanisms. His current research is directed towards the pathophysiology of asthma and allied disorders, with a special interest in understanding how environmental exposures such as allergens, virus infections and air pollutants interact with the airways in the induction and exacerbation of asthma."[4]

Having chaired the UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative since its inception in 2013, he has stated that he wants to develop a "dream team" of the best researchers working on the UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative. One the projects launched by the Collaborative was the Grand Challenge, called such because its goal was to study ten thousand patients.[5]

He believes that ME/CFS could have twelve to fifteen different ‘causal pathways’ and that may be the reason it has been so hard to decipher.[6]

Articles[edit | edit source]

Notable studies[edit | edit source]

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Controversy[edit | edit source]

Stephen Holgate supported and endorsed the controversial online CBT therapy for children research, the FITNET trial, led by Esther Crawley in 2016 which got a lot of media promotion. Dr Esther Crawley claimed that many children could be cured by this & professor Holgate called it the type of high quality research we needed more of [11]

Professor Holgate was a cosignatory of the infamous 2012 letter in the Independent[12] in support of Simon Wessely’s CFS work & his receipt of the Maddox prize for bravery in the “controversial” Chronic Fatigue Syndrome field.


Learn more[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. "Rising to the challenge of understanding the mechanisms of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/M.E.)" (PDF). The ME association. 2018.
  2. http://www.southampton.ac.uk/medicine/about/staff/sth.page
  3. "Professor Stephen Holgate receives Knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours List | University of Southampton". southampton.ac.uk. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  4. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/groups/projects/cfs/publications/assets/2011/Holgatecomplexillness.pdf
  5. "Professor Stephen Holgate: UK has "dream team" for Grand Challenge". #MEAction Network. April 28, 2016. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  6. "A Dozen Different Diseases? Stephen Holgate Calls for Radical Change in ME/CFS Research". Phoenix Rising ME/CFS Forums. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Holgate, Stephen T.; Komaroff, Anthony L.; Mangan, Dennis; Wessely, Simon (September 2011). "Chronic fatigue syndrome: understanding a complex illness". Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 12 (9): 539–544. doi:10.1038/nrn3087. ISSN 1471-003X.
  8. "Fighting Over Fatigue: Will This Chronic Syndrome Ever Be Taken Seriously?". The Wire. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  9. Kaushik, N; Fear, D; Richards, S C M; McDermott, C R; Nuwaysir, E F; Kellam, P; Harrison, T J; Wilkinson, RJ; Tyrrell, D A J; Holgate, S T; Kerr, JR (August 1, 2005). "Gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome". Journal of Clinical Pathology. 58 (8): 826–832. doi:10.1136/jcp.2005.025718. ISSN 0021-9746. PMC 1770875. PMID 16049284.
  10. Kerr, Jonathan R; Petty, Robert; Burke, Beverley; Gough, John; Fear, David; Sinclair, Lindsey I; Mattey, Derek L; Richards, Selwyn C; Montgomery, Jane; Baldwin, Don A; Kellam, Paul; Harrison, Tim J; Griffin, George E; Main, Janice; Enlander, Derek; Nutt, David J; Holgate, Stephen T (April 15, 2008), "Gene Expression Subtypes in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis", The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 197 (8): 1171–1184, doi:10.1086/533453
  11. "Landmark chronic fatigue trial could treat two-thirds". BBC News. November 1, 2016. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  12. "IoS letters, emails & online postings (2 December 2012)". The Independent. December 8, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2021.