Ronald Davis

Ronald Wayne Davis, PhD., or Ron Davis, is a Professor of Biochemistry & Genetics and the Director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center at Stanford University. In 1983, he was bestowed the honor of being elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ron Davis' son, Whitney Dafoe, is severely ill with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Professor Davis leads the End ME/CFS Project with the Open Medicine Foundation whose first project was the ME/CFS Severely Ill, Big Data Study.

Committees and boards

Open Medicine Foundation

Director of the Scientific Advisory Board at Open Medicine Foundation, which is committed to research for ME/CFS and related chronic complex diseases.

Institute of Medicine report

Dr. Davis was one of the experts on the "Committee on the Diagnostic Criteria for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" that was convened as per US government request for the 2015 Institute of Medicine. The Institute of Medicine has since changed its name to the National Academy of Medicine.

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.

ME/CFS research summary

As director of the Scientific Advisory Board at Open Medicine Foundation, a charity he founded to research ME/CFS and related chronic complex diseases, Ron Davis has led a number of high profile medical research projects for ME/CFS.

In June 2018, Dr. Davis and the Stanford Genome Center received a grant award for the research study Molecular and Single-cell Immunology of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome "to investigate the immunological basis of ME/CFS using cutting-edge technologies to understand the role of infection and autoimmunity in the behavior of single immune cells from patients – offering precise insights into how this complex illness originates and persists that may lead to new strategies for treatment." This was a five-year study that it was announced would receive $745,000 a year.

In February 2017, Dr. Davis explained in a video that the development of new nanofabricated technology allows rapid drug screening via measurement of electrical impedance. This technology may be able to determine which medications could be most effective in treating myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. Experimentation was also being carried out to test if this same nanofabricated technology could be used in developing a simple diagnostic test for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. A small nanoelectronics-blood-based diagnostic biomarker study was published in 2019.

In March 2016, it was announced that the ME/CFS Severely Ill, Big Data Study had a significant result in the area of mitochondria. This lead to the addition of Dr. Robert Naviaux (a mitochondrial expert) to the research team.

Notable studies

• 2023, Catalytic Antibodies May Contribute to Demyelination in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - (Full text)

• 2019, A nanoelectronics-blood-based diagnostic biomarker for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) - (Full text)

• 2019, Red blood cell deformability is diminished in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - (Full text)

• 2018, Erythrocyte Deformability As a Potential Biomarker for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - (Full text)

Advocacy

Open Letters

• 2016 and 2018, Dr. Davis was one of the signatories of the Open letter to the Lancet urging its editor to commission a fully independent review of the PACE trial as published in its journal.
• 2017, Dr. Davis was one of the signatories of An open letter to Psychological Medicine about “recovery” and the PACE trial

Millions Missing protest

Dr. Ron Davis and his wife, Dr. Janet Dafoe, protested with #MillionsMissing at the San Francisco satellite protest on May 25, 2016. Dr. Davis gave a speech about the challenges ME patients face, and his hopes for the future of ME research.

Talks and interviews

2016

• May 21, 2016, Short Story of a Family's Struggle with ME/CFS
• 3 Jun 2016, Speaker at the 11th Invest in ME International ME Conference - Big Data Approach: Severely Ill ME Patient Cohort DVD available
• Dr. Davis's interview at the San Francisco #MillionsMissing protest
• Dec 13, 2016, Getting Answers to ME/CFS Faster through Collaboration and Openness

2017

• Feb 3, 2017, Scientist Ron Davis Tells How We Are "Fast-Tracking" ME/CFS Research
• Feb 20, 2017, Chronic Fatigue: Missing Millions (Carte Blanche DSTV)
• Feb 21, 2017, "An Update on ME/CFS Research with Dr. Ronald W. Davis"

YouTube video

Transcript

• Mar 7, 2017, Q&A on ME/CFS Research with Dr. Ron Davis
• Jun 2017, Ron Davis is optimistic at the 2017 Invest in ME Research Conference
• Jun 2, 2017, Speaker at the 12th Invest in ME International ME Conference on "Big Data Approach: Severely ill ME Patient Cohort" DVD available
• 15 Jun 2017, "The Last Major Disease To Be Studied? Ron Davis of Stanford Thinks So"

Mendelspod podcast

Transcript

• Aug 12, 2017, Community Symposium on the Molecular Basis of ME/CFS - 2017: Speech title - Establishing new mechanistic and diagnostic paradigms for ME/CFS

2018

• May 3-5, 2018, ME/CFS Canadian Collaborative Team Conference - Speech titles: The Future of ME/CFS Research in the Multiomic and Big Data Era and An Integrative, Molecular, Data and Technology-Driven Approach to ME/CFS
• Jun 3, 2018, Speaker at the 13th Invest in ME Conference 2018; Speech title: Establishing new mechanistic and diagnostic paradigms for ME/CFS - (Video)

• Sep 2018, Dr. Ron Davis Presents ME/CFS Research at the 2018 IIMEC Conference Patients' gene expression profiles most closely resembles Trypanosome infection (African sleeping sickness) variant suspected.
• Sep 29, 2018, Biomarkers, given at Second Annual Community Symposium on the Molecular Basis of ME/CFS, sponsored by Open Medicine Foundation - (Video)

2019

• Mar 14, 2019, Establishing New Mechanistic & Diagnostic Paradigms for ME/CFS given at the International Research Symposium, Geelong, Australia, sponsored by Emerge Australia
• Apr 29, 2019, What does the nanoneedle research mean for ME/CFS patients?
• May 31, 2019, Speaker at the 14th Invest in ME International ME Conference; Speech title: Establishing new mechanistic and diagnostic paradigms for ME/CFS - (Video)
• Jun 8, 2019, Stanford Experiences with ME/CFS: Update on Stanford activities, given at the Inaugural Harvard ME/CFS Collaboration Symposium sponsored by Open Medicine Foundation

Book

• 2021, The Puzzle Solver: A Scientist's Desperate Quest to Cure the Illness that Stole his Son By Tracie White with Ronald W. Davis

Alternative title: Waiting For Superman: One Family's Struggle to Survive - and Cure - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Online presence

• Researchgate
• PubMed

See also

• End ME/CFS Project
• Janet Dafoe
• Open Medicine Foundation
• Whitney Dafoe

Learn more

• Wikipedia - Ronald Davis
• 2016, Happy 75th Birthday to Scientist Ronald W. Davis, PhD
• 2016, Tackling chronic fatigue syndrome
• 2016, The puzzle solver: A researcher changes course to help his son

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

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 myalgic encephalomyelitis.

See chronic fatigue syndrome.

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.

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.

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.

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.