Stephen Holgate

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. He is Medical Research Council Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology and Honorary Consultant Physician within Medicine at the University of Southampton, Southampton, England.

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

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."

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.

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.

Articles

• 2011, Chronic fatigue syndrome: understanding a complex illness.
• 2013, A Dozen Different Diseases? Stephen Holgate Calls for Radical Change in ME/CFS Research
• 2013, Forward ME Minutes of the Meeting 2 Jul 2013 - Professor Stephen Holgate invited to speak.
• 2013, Patients with chronic fatigue use additional areas of brain when using memory
• 2013, Launch of inclusive UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative
• 2015, Fighting Over Fatigue: Will This Chronic Syndrome Ever Be Taken Seriously?

Notable studies

• 2003,  Identification of novel expressed sequences, up‐regulated in the leucocytes of chronic fatigue syndrome patients - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14519154/
• 2005, Gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome - (Full Text)
• 2008, Gene Expression Subtypes in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (Full Text)
• 2011, Chronic fatigue syndrome: understanding a complex illness - (Abstract)

Talks and interviews

• 2013, Prof Stephen Holgate, Chair of the UK CFS/M.E. Research Collaborative, gives the keynote speech at our 2013 AGM and research conference in London.
• 2014, Edinburgh M.E. Self-help Group (edmesh) Open Meeting May 2014 - Stephen Holgate Speaking
• 2015, UK CFS/M.E. Research Collaborative Science Conference Day 1
• 2016, UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative Conference, Welcome address
• 2018, UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative Conference, Welcome address

Controversy

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

Professor Holgate was a cosignatory of the infamous 2012 letter in the Independent 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

• Sethphen Holgate's Faculty page at University of Southampton
• UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative
• Grand Challenge

See myalgic encephalomyelitis.

UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative (CMRC) - A UK group of researchers and ME/CFS patient groups led by Professor Stephen Holgate. Its launch in 2013 was covered by the Science Media Centre. Since 2014, the collaborative sponsors the CFS/ME Research Collaborative Conference.

See UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative.

cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) - A type of psychotherapy geared toward modifying alleged unhealthy thinking, behaviors or illness beliefs. One of the treatment arms used in the controversial PACE trial.

See cognitive behavioral therapy.

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.