Maureen Hanson

Source:Cornell.edu

Maureen R. Hanson, PhD., is the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US, and Director of the Cornell Center for Enervating NeuroImmune Disease. In April 2021, Hanson was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

In addition to her research on genome-containing organelles of plants, chloroplasts and mitochondria, she is exploring the pathophysiology of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Research goals include examining the gut and blood microbiome in healthy vs. ill subjects and identifying differences in gene expression before and after exercise in subjects diagnosed with CFS/ME compared to healthy subjects.

Dr. Hanson, together with a team of researchers and clinicians at Ithaca College collaborated to create a new ME/CFS research center called the Center for Enervating NeuroImmune Disease (CENID) of which she is the director. Dr Hanson is also a member of the Working Group which offers their expertise and resources to the ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center at Stanford University.

Dr. Hanson's strong desire to research and advocate for ME/CFS is motivated by her having a family member with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Education

• B.S. degree at Duke University
• Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University
• NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard

Cornell ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center

In 2017, Maureen Hanson, Ph.D. was named the Principal Investigator of the Cornell ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center, a collaborative research center partly funded by an NIH grant.

Committees and boards

IOM Committee on Diagnostic Criteria for ME/CFS

Dr Hanson was a reviewer for the 2015 report produced by the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Diagnostic Criteria for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

ME/CFS Common Data Element (CDE) Project

Member of the Biomarkers 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

• 2023, The viral origin of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome — (full text)
• 2022, The Enterovirus Theory of Disease Etiology in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Critical Review - (Full text)
• 2021, In-Depth Analysis of the Plasma Proteome in ME/CFS Exposes Disrupted Ephrin-Eph and Immune System Signaling - (Full text)
• 2020, Comprehensive Circulatory Metabolomics in ME/CFS Reveals Disrupted Metabolism of Acyl Lipids and Steroids - (Full text)
• 2020, Letter to the Editor of Metabolites - (Full letter)

• 2020, Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome patients exhibit altered T cell metabolism and cytokine associations - (Full text)

• 2020, Cytokine profiling of extracellular vesicles isolated from plasma in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: A pilot study - (Full text)

• 2018, Eukaryotes in the gut microbiota in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome - (Abstract)
• 2018, Prospective Biomarkers from Plasma Metabolomics of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Implicate Redox Imbalance in Disease Symptomatology - (Full Text)
• 2017, Metabolic profiling of a myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome discovery cohort reveals disturbances in fatty acid and lipid metabolism - (Full text)

• 2016, A Pair of Identical Twins Discordant for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Differ in Physiological Parameters and Gut Microbiome Composition - (Full text)
• 2016, Reduced diversity and altered composition of the gut microbiome in individuals with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome - (Full Text)
• 2016, Mitochondrial DNA variants correlate with symptoms in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome - (Full Text)
• 2016, Association of mitochondrial DNA variants with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) symptoms - (Full Text)

• 2012, A Multicenter Blinded Analysis Indicates No Association between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and either Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus or Polytropic Murine Leukemia Virus - (Full Text)

Talks and interviews

• 2014, Speaker at the 9th Invest in ME International ME Conference DVD available(no speech title given)
• Jun 3, 2016, Speaker at the 11th Invest in ME International ME Conference on "The Search for Biomarkers for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis" DVD available
• Sep 1, 2016, Solve ME/CFS Initiative Webinar with Maureen Hanson, Ph.D., "Current and Previous Research on ME/CFS at Cornell University"
• Aug 12, 2017, Community Symposium on the Molecular Basis of ME/CFS - 2017 "Probing metabolism in ME/CFS"
• Oct 14, 2017 - Solve ME/CFS Initiative Discovery Forum 2017: An Interview with Dr. Maureen Hanson by Dr. Zaher Nahle
• 3-5 May 2018, ME/CFS Canadian Collaborative Team Conference - Speech title: Metabolism in ME/CFS
• 31 May 2019, Speaker at the14th Invest in ME Conference 2019; Speech title: Immune Dysregulation in ME/CFS - (Video)
• 8 June 2019, Immune System Function of ME/CFS, given at the Inaugural Harvard ME/CFS Collaboration Symposium sponsored by Open Medicine Foundation
• 23 October, 2021, Searching Plasma for Clues to ME/CFS, given at the Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association 2021 annual meeting

Articles

• May 10, 2016, When the Hoofbeats are Zebras by Maureen Hanson
• May 20, 2016, Be Aware and Beware: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Is an Equal Opportunity Disease by Maureen Hanson
• Sep 30, 2016, Millions Are Missing: Will The World Finally Notice?
• Oct 10, 2016, The Real Story About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Online presence

• PubMed
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Cornell University - Professor Maureen Hanson Website
• Cornell University - Faculty page, Maureen Hanson
• Scholar Google

See also

• Center for Enervating NeuroImmune Disease
• Invest in ME International ME Conference
• Mitochondrion
• Solve ME/CFS Initiative

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

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

See ME/CFS.

See myalgic encephalomyelitis.

See chronic fatigue syndrome.

See National Institutes of Health.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) - A set of biomedical research institutes operated by the U.S. government, under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services.

National Academy of Medicine (NAM) - An American non-profit, non-governmental organization which provides expert advice to governmental agencies on issues relating to biomedical science, medicine and health. Formerly known as the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

See National Academy of Medicine.

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.

enterovirus A genus of RNA viruses which typically enter the body through the respiratory or gastrointestinal systems and sometimes spread to the central nervous system or other parts of the body, causing neurological, cardiac, and other damage. Since the first reports of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), enteroviruses have been suspected as a cause of ME. Enteroviruses have also been implicated as the cause of Type I diabetes, congestive heart failure, and other conditions. Enteroviruses include poliovirus, coxsackieviruses, and many others. New enteroviruses and new strains of existing enteroviruses are continuously being discovered. (Learn more: viralzone.expasy.org)

etiology The cause of origin, especially of a disease.

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".

metabolomics The analysis of the chemical metabolism within cells, tissues or organisms. The term is often used to refer to the full set of metabolites found in a cell in a given environment.

metabolite A chemical compound produced by, or involved in, metabolism. The term is often used to refer to the degradation products of drugs in the body.

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.

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)

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)

extracellular vesicle An extracellular vesicle (sometimes abbreviated EV) is a piece of a cell that has broken off and formed a separate membrane-bound vesicle. A membrane-bound vesicle is like a bubble, or like a mini-cell, in that it has a membrane surrounding some liquid. An extracellular vesicle may also contain some parts of the cell from which the extracellular vesicle arose. There are currently two types of extracellular vesicles: "exosomes" and "microvesicles". An "exosome" is an extracellular vesicle that began inside the cell as an intracellular vesicle known as an "endosome". A "microvesicle" is an extracellular vesicle that begins at the cell surface, and pinches off the cell's own membrane to form a separate vesicle. (Learn more: journals.physiology.org)

eukaryote any cell or organism that possesses a clearly defined nucleus, unlike bacteria. Eukaryotes include yeast, fungus, plants, and animals.

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

physiological Concerning living organisms, such as cells or the human body.  Physio logical (as in physio) is not to be confused with psych ological (emotional stress).

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

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

mitochondria Important parts of the biological cell, with each mitochondrion encased within a mitochondrial membrane. Mitochondria are best known for their role in energy production, earning them the nickname "the powerhouse of the cell". Mitochondria also participate in the detection of threats and the response to these threats. One of the responses to threats orchestrated by mitochondria is apoptosis, a cell suicide program used by cells when the threat can not be eliminated.

mitochondria Important parts of the biological cell, with each mitochondrion encased within a mitochondrial membrane. Mitochondria are best known for their role in energy production, earning them the nickname "the powerhouse of the cell". Mitochondria also participate in the detection of threats and the response to these threats. One of the responses to threats orchestrated by mitochondria is apoptosis, a cell suicide program used by cells when the threat can not be eliminated.