Open Medicine Foundation Australia Ltd (OMFAL) is a regional branch entity of Open Medicine Foundation, and is part of the largest, concerted worldwide nonprofit effort to diagnose, treat and find a cure for ME/CFS.
It was established for the purpose of promoting and funding research into multi system chronic complex diseases, and supports the Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration. Established in 2020, the Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration is directed by Christopher W. Armstrong, PhD.
“We are tremendously grateful for the generous support from Emerge Australia, our Australian partner. Emerge Australia is a national organization providing information, support, and advocacy for people with ME/CFS — giving hope and help to more than 250,000 Australians living with the disease,”
Linda Tannenbaum, OMF Founder & CEO/President
The Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration seeks to characterize the unifying biological pathways of ME/CFS that relate to the shared disease experience between patients while also understanding each patient’s unique biology that creates variation in disease experience and severity.
Chris Armstrong, PhD, was OMF’s Science Liaison and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford. He completed his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Melbourne, and has been involved with researching ME/CFS for over a decade.
Dr. Armstrong is most well known for his research using metabolomics to observe biochemical alterations in ME/CFS patients. He began his work in this field at the University of Melbourne, beginning a PhD project to apply metabolomics to study (ME/CFS) and published his first metabolomics study on blood and urine in 2015.
Since then Chris has set up collaborative efforts to apply metabolomics to immunological experiments on ME/CFS, observing how metabolism may relate to immune cell function. He has also focused on longitudinal research in ME/CFS while looking to extend metabolic capabilities across the field of ME/CFS to help collate different patient group
Nitrogen Metabolism and Testing Nitrogen Hypothesis in ME/CFS Study AIM This project aims to test the nitrogen hypothesis, which is that damaging, nitrogen-containing by-products
Pediatrics ME/CFS Deep Omics Profiling and Longitudinal Study STUDY AIM This proposal seeks to understand pathological mechanisms of paediatric ME/CFS (13 to 18 years old)
Characterizing B cells in ME/CFS STUDY AIM This study aims to broadly evaluate B cell subsets, metabolism, viability, receptors, and antibodies in people with ME/CFS.
Developing condensed precision research protocol for ME/CFS PROTOCOL AIM Establish a condensed personalized research protocol that can be used to characterize ME/CFS in individual
Developing Rapid System for Outlier Analysis in ME/CFS PROTOCOL AIM Establish an analytical workflow for outlier analysis in ME/CFS to identify disease or symptom exacerbators
To carry out these ambitious projects, Dr. Armstrong is establishing networks and collaborations extending to USA, UK, Sweden, and other Australian institutions.
University of Melbourne, Australia
Christopher Armstrong, PhD
Paul Gooley, PhD
Neil McGregor, PhD
Natalie Thomas, PhD
Kathy Huang
David Ascher, PhD
Elisha Josev, PhD
Sarah Knight, PhD
Adam Scheinberg, MD
David Stroud, PhD
Stanford University, USA
Ronald Davis, PhD
Robert Phair, PhD
Laurel Crosby, PhD
Julie Wilhelmy
Amit Saha, PhD
Layla Cervantes
Anna Okumu
Mike Snyder, PhD
Ryan Kellogg, PhD
Jaime Seltzer
Uppsala University, Sweden
Jonas Bergquist, MD, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital, USA
Wenzhong Xiao, PhD
University of Montreal, Canada
Alain Moreau, PhD
Open Medicine Foundation
Linda Tannenbaum
UC San Diego, USA
Robert Naviaux, MD, PhD
University of Alabama Birmingham, USA
Jarred Younger, PhD
University College London, UK
Jo Cambridge, PhD
La Trobe University, Australia
Sarah Annesley, PhD
Paul Fisher, PhD
Daniel Missailidis
Australian National University, Australia
Brett Lidbury, PhD
Alice Richardson, PhD
Monash University, Australia
Joanne Fielding, PhD
Meaghan Clough, PhD
Macquarie University, Australia
Gilles Guillemin, PhD
Open Medicine Foundation Australia, Limited is registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). We are authorized by the Australian Tax Office as a deductible gift recipient (DGR).
ABN/DGR 81 635 273 415
Donations of $2 or more are tax-deductible.
Open Medicine Foundation Australia, Limited
C/O Accru Melbourne Pty Ltd
50 Camberwell Road
Hawthorn East VIC 3124