Suzanne Vernon

Suzanne D. Vernon, PhD, is the Research Liaison at Bateman Horne Center of Excellence which specializes in treatment and research for ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia and the Chief Scientific Revolutionary of The BioCollective, a collaborative that provides storage and sales of microbiome samples for research and development.

From November 2007 – May 2015, Dr. Vernon was the Scientific Director of Solve ME/CFS Initiative, formerly known as CFIDS Association of America. While there she recognized that access to well-characterized clinical populations was a barrier to engaging more scientists in ME/CFS research. Thus, she started the Research Institute Without Walls (RIWW), "the first nonprofit patient-centered research initiative focused on identifying diagnostic biomarkers and disease-modifying treatment for ME/CFS. The core of RIWW is the SolveCFS BioBank & Patient Registry.

From May 1990 – October 2007, Dr. Vernon worked for the US Centers for Disease Control, first on the team investigating the human papillomavirus as an opportunistic infection in HIV-infected woman, and then in 1997, she became the CFS research group team leader, under William Reeves, MD, the Director of the CDC Chronic Fatigue Research Program.

In 2005, Dr Vernon was one of the authors of the CDC case definition of CFS, commonly called the Reeves criteria.

Talks and interviews

• 2012, "Cognition & CFS: What Do We Know?" by the CFIDS Association of America with speakers Gudrun Lange and Suzanne Vernon, introduced by Kim McCleary
• 2014, Episode 70, ME/CFS Alert - Llewellyn King Interviews Dr. Suzanne Vernon
• 2015, Sleep and ME/CFS - Suzanne Vernon, PhD, A Bateman Horne Education Meeting
• 2015, [1]Spoonie Radio Episode 09 Guest - Dr. Suzanne Vernon Podcast and Full Text Transcript
• 2016, Precision Medicine for ME/CFS & Fibromyalgia

Studies and Articles

• 2003, Identification of ambiguities in the 1994 chronic fatigue syndrome research case definition and recommendations for resolution (Full Text)
• 2003, Integration of gene expression, clinical, and epidemiologic data to characterize Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Full Text)
• 2004, Differential-display PCR of peripheral blood for biomarker discovery in chronic fatigue syndrome (Abstract)
• 2005, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – A clinically empirical approach to its definition and study
• 2006, Post-infective and chronic fatigue syndromes precipitated by viral and non-viral pathogens: Prospective cohort study(Abstract)
• 2006, Preliminary evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction associated with post-infective fatigue after acute infection with Epstein Barr Virus (Full Text)
• 2008, Neuroendocrine and immune network remodeling in chronic fatigue syndrome: an exploratory analysis (Full Text)
• 2008, Evidence of inflammatory immune signaling in chronic fatigue syndrome: A pilot study of gene expression in peripheral blood. (Abstract)
• 2009, Transcriptional control of complement activation in an exercise model of chronic fatigue syndrome (Full text)
• 2012, Cytokine expression profiles of immune imbalance in post-mononucleosis chronic fatigue
• 2014, No association found between the detection of either xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus or polytropic murine leukemia virus and chronic fatigue syndrome in a blinded, multi-site, prospective study by the establishment and use of the SolveCFS BioBank (Full Text)
• 2014, Examining case definition criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis
• 2015, Chronic fatigue syndrome versus systemic exertion intolerance disease] (Abstract)
• 2015, Comparing and contrasting consensus versus empirical domains (Abstract)
• 2015, Changes in Gut and Plasma Microbiome following Exercise Challenge in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) (Full Text)
• 2016, The utility of patient-reported outcome measures among patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
• 2016, Tracking post-infectious fatigue in clinic using routine Lab tests (Full Text)
• 2016, Current therapeutic strategies for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: results of an online survey (Abstract)
• 2016, Article - Uncovering Biomarkers– Fcg receptors in ME/CFS
• 2016, Reductions in circulating levels of IL-16, IL-7 and VEGF-A in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome(Full Text)
• 2017, Epigenetic modifications and glucocorticoid sensitivity in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) (Full Text)
• 2017, Neural Consequences of Post-Exertion Malaise in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Full Text)
• 2018, A C-reactive protein response in patients with post-treatment Lyme Disease symptoms versus those with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Abstract)
• 2018, Integration of DNA methylation & health scores identifies subtypes in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (Abstract)
• 2018, Letter - Markers of non-coeliac wheat sensitivity in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
• 2018, Genome-epigenome interactions associated with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Abstract)
• 2019, Perturbation of effector and regulatory T cell subsets in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) - (Full text)
• 2020, Hemodynamics during the 10-minute NASA Lean Test: evidence of circulatory decompensation in a subset of ME/CFS patients - (Full text)

Online presence

• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Learn more

• Profile

See also

• Bateman Horne Center
• SolveCFS BioBank & Patient Registry

Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) - Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome is another term for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but one which emphasizes the immunological aspects of the disease. Popular in the 1990s, this term has apparently fallen into disuse.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a U.S. government agency dedicated to epidemiology and public health. It operates under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services.

chronic fatigue (CF) - Persistent and abnormal fatigue is a symptom, not an illness. It may be caused by depression, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome or many other illnesses. The term "chronic fatigue" should never be confused with the disease chronic fatigue syndrome.

blinded trial A clinical trial is blinded if either the participants or the researchers don't know which treatment group they are allocated to until after the results are interpreted. (Learn more: www.nottingham.ac.uk)

plasma The liquid part of blood, lymph, or milk after removing any suspended material. Most of the time, "plasma" simply refers to blood, after all the blood cells have been removed. If you also remove the clotting factors, then the plasma is referred to as "serum".

subjective outcome An outcome of a clinical trial that depends on the judgement or opinion of the assessor or patient, e.g. asking if fatigue has increased or decreased "a little" or "a lot", patient questionnaires like the Chalder Fatigue Scale, and other patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).

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

epigenome all of the chemical compounds that are not part of the DNA sequence, but are on or attached to DNA as a way to regulate gene activity

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.

BMJ The BMJ (previously the British Medical Journal) is a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal.

cytokine any class of immunoregulatory proteins secreted by cells, especially immune cells. Cytokines are small proteins important in cell signaling that modulate the immune system. (Learn more: me-pedia.org)

microbiome The full collection of microscopic organisms (especially bacteria and fungi) which are present in a particular environment, particularly inside the human body.