Epidemiology Project

The CFI proprietary epidemiology study is aimed to evaluate the presentation and trajectory of CFS and identify effective interventions. One thousand subjects from four of the original five cohort recruitment sites completed a questionnaire and a chart review was conducted to establish baseline symptoms and diagnoses, inter-current events, new diagnoses, comorbid conditions, and history of illness. The data is now in the process of being analyzed to evaluate the presentation and trajectory of CFS over a period of time and to determine the effects of interventions.

An initial Harvard School of Public Health study of CFS sufferers, based on the Nurses Health Studies I and II and the Health Professional Follow-on Study, aimed to identify a large sample of men and women with CFS to study the etiology of the disease and subjects’ environmental exposures from before and after the time they became ill. Results are being finalized and reviewed for publication.

CFI Cohort Recruitment

CFI is recruiting a well-characterized cohort of CFS patients (200 subjects plus 200 healthy controls nationwide). The goal is to help researchers establish a pure population of subjects who truly have the disease, ultimately enabling the discovery of pathogenic pathways.

CFS Bio-bank and Database

Cohort members will contribute biologic samples, collected by leading clinicians working at select institutions around the country, to a central bio-bank housed at Duke University. The bio-bank will be accessible to researchers around the world for future study.

A database will link clinical data from the cohort to the biologic samples in the bio-bank. Together, these resources will form a unique foundation for the discovery of pathogens and pathogenic mechanisms in CFS and the identification of patients who will most likely respond to specific treatments.

Pathogen Discovery and Pathogenesis Study

Following cohort recruitment, creation of the bio-bank and population of the database, the pathogen discovery and pathogenesis study led by the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University seeks to uncover novel viruses implicated in the disease by using techniques that allow up to 20 pathogens to be searched simultaneously.

Mechanism of Illness Program

CFI will offer grants to fund new research guided by five or six general hypotheses formed by a scientific advisory board of leading scientists and clinicians. The Hutchins Family Fellow for Infectious Disease grant is the first of many grants to be funded by this program. This year’s inaugural recipient will collaborate closely with Columbia's Center for Infection and Immunity on the pathogen discovery research at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.