In partnership with the Miami Veteran’s Administration Medical Center’s Gulf War Illness (GWI) research program, the INIM is a multi- disciplinary research and clinical institute that takes a systems biology approach to understanding complex medical illnesses, such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Gulf War Illness (GWI).

Dr. Klimas is Professor Emerita, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, a diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine, a diplomat in Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, and Director of Clinical Immunology Research at the Miami VAMC. She has achieved national and international recognition for her research and clinical efforts in multi-symptom disorders including ME/CFS and GWI, was the past president of the International Association for CFS and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (IACFS/ME), a professional organization of clinicians and investigators, and a past member of the Health and Human Services (HHS) CFS Advisory Committee.

Dr. Eliana Lacerda has been the Vice-Chair of EUROMENE, a network involving participants from 22 European countries, which provided guidelines for epidemiological, clinical and biomarkers research, in addition to diagnosis of and health care provision to people with ME/CFS. Dr. Lacerda is the PI for a new research project (NIH funded) on HHV6 viral reactivation in people with ME/CFS and with Long Covid in the UK.

Steering Committee

Under the direction of the Executive Committee, the Steering Committee will:

Provide strategic support, advice, feedback and guidance to the Director and Executive Committee on key issues such as network priorities and goals.

Provide support and feedback to the Working Groups as determined by the Director and the Executive Committee.

Dr. Alain Moreau is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Dentistry (Stomatology Department), cross-appointed to the Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine Department in the Faculty of Medicine at Université de Montreal. He served as Director of Research and Chief Scientific Officer of Sainte-Justine University Hospital (2013-2016). Dr. Moreau was the Director of the Network for Canadian Oral Health Research – NCOHR (2016-2022) and he served as member (2010-2022) and vice-president (2012-2016) on the Advisory Board of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis of The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). In 2019, Dr. Moreau was appointed Director of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ICanCME) Research Network, another national research network funded by CIHR. He is an internationally recognized expert on molecular genetics of pediatric scoliosis. His discoveries led to multiple peer-reviewed papers, international conferences as a guest speaker, several awards as well as 72 patents covering innovative diagnostic tests and therapeutic molecules. Dr. Moreau is the cofounder and Chief Scientific Officer of Inception Therapeutic Inc. a start-up based in Montreal developing diagnostic tests for primary osteoarthritis and new disease-modifying osteoarthritis drugs. Dr. Moreau’s main research interests target pediatric scoliosis and other complex adult diseases such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Dr. Marie-Yvonne Akoume earned a BSc. in Biology from Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) as well as a MSc. in Toxicology and a PhD. in Pharmacology from Université de Montréal. Thereafter, she completed her postdoctoral training in the department of Pharmacology & therapeutics at McGill University and in the Cancer & Hormone Research Unit of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, before joining the Viscogliosi Molecular Genetics Laboratory, first as Fellow and then as research associate.

Dr. Akoume is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of molecular biology and genetics at Université des Sciences de la Santé de Libreville (Gabon), while keeping collaboration with Viscogliosi Laboratory. She is co-inventor in several patents, co-author of high impact publications and recipient of various awards.

The main interests of Dr. Akoume’s research focus on understanding the G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling in different pathophysiological contexts. Her work has revealed a differential impairment of Gi-mediated signaling among patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis and provided the first evidence for the hereditary nature and prognostic value of this defect. She also works on drug discovery using natural products as therapeutic tools with a combination of in vivo, in vitro, and molecular approaches.

Dr. Bray trained in chemical engineering, then earned her Masters of Science degree in pharmacology and biomedical engineering in the area of addictions and toxicology. She then studied medicine at the University of Toronto and did her specialty in Family Medicine at UBC. She then completed a fellowship in Environmental Health at the University of Toronto. She has been Medical Director of the Environmental Health Clinic at Women’s College Hospital and Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine for over ten years. She was Chair of the Environmental Health Committee of the Ontario College of Family Physicians for ten years and holds a Masters of Health Sciences (Public Health) in Family and Community Medicine. She has taught University level courses, won awards for her work in environmental health, spear-headed multiple educational and academic projects, been involved in multiple government-funded research initiatives, mentored and taught hundreds of medical students, residents, fellows and peers in the area of environmental health and been an advocate in environmental health with non-governmental organizations over the many years.

Dr. Edgell is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Sciences at York University where her research involves the cardiovascular health of women. Her research is currently focused on 1) cardiovascular and autonomic function in young healthy men and women including testing throughout the menstrual cycle and/or investigating the impact of oral contraceptives (there are very few physiologists that focus on the biological responses of women to stressors), 2) investigations into the role of the menstrual cycle in the delay of accurate diagnoses for patients with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and the potential role of a neck compression collar for the alleviation of symptoms in POTS (this research led to becoming a member of ICanCME since POTS is the primary vascular instability of ME/CFS), 3) inspiratory muscle training in ME/CFS and long COVID, and 4)  via collaborations with the Toronto Rumsey Centre (University Health Network) and Sunnybrook hospital, she will study men and women with cardiovascular disease or Type 2 Diabetes while investigating the efficiency of standard cardiac rehabilitation programs. To do this work Dr. Edgell has received funding from NSERC, Standing up to POTS, Solve ME/CFS, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation/Ontario Research Fund.

A long-time patient advocate, Barbara Fifield has organized multiple participatory campaigns aimed at educating others about the true nature and relevant issues of ME. Since co-founding Millions Missing Canada in 2016, she has amplified the voices of those living with the disease, has been instrumental in connecting the community and has played a significant role in expanding the Canadian advocacy movement.

As someone who has lived with severe ME for decades while also having a family member who is profoundly affected, Barbara has an intimate understanding of the illness in adults and children. Combining her lived experience with over fifteen years of advocacy within the education system, her extensive knowledge of the history of the disease, and a close relationship with the online patient community, Barbara has served as an invaluable resource to those seeking help and support.

Severe ME can steal everything you hold dear. It can incapacitate, alienate, stigmatize, paralyze, and ruthlessly cripple lives. The need for appropriate medical care, adequate treatment, and equitable research remains urgent. Ideally, Barbara hopes to see ME addressed with meaningful action in direct proportion to the devastation it causes. The countless lives lost, the depth of suffering, the decades of systemic neglect, and the turbulent history of this illness demand nothing less.

Christiane Garcia had a successful, diversified career as a nurse, nurse clinician, and nurse educator. She subsequently became an assistant director of nursing, earned her MBA, and was the chief executive of three organizations, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Montreal. As a strategic planner and consultant, she assisted foundations, hospitals and associations to develop fundraising strategies and worked with governments to improve the quality of care for patients in a variety of milieus.

Christiane has started and implemented many special projects: a new nursing curriculum; hospital in-service departments; and new associations and patient groups. Her advocacy has included being a spokesperson for several illnesses including ME.

Christiane became bedridden in 1982 and or for two decades since her eventual diagnosis, she devoted her limited energies to advocacy for ME. She has served on the boards of the ME Association of Ontario (MEAO) and of Action CIND. Christiane is currently Co-President of l’Association Québécoise de l’Encéphalomyélite Myalgique (AQEM). She has been an active leader of the patient group ICanCME formed in early 2019 to work with Dr. Moreau in developing the successful CIHR proposal, making a significant contribution to the document. Christiane is thankful to Dr Moreau and all researchers, clinicians and persons with ME who have joined hands to research, diagnose and treat this complex multisystem disease.

Dr. Alexis Goth is a hospitalist and family physician (Dalhousie University), with additional training in Integrative Medicine (Fellow, University of Arizona), as well as Functional Medicine (IFM). She is a clinician at ICCS, the Integrated Chronic Care Service, in Fall River NS. Her work focuses on applying an integrative and functional medicine lens to complex chronic disease, particularly patients considered to have central nervous system sensitization. This includes patients with ME/CFS, gut dysfunction, POTS, dietary and environmental sensitivities, MCS, PTSD, etc. The ICCS model is an integrative, whole person systems biology approach, which considers the individual to be a complex expression of his/her dynamic internal and external environment. Additionally, she is a faculty of medicine at Dalhousie University, and practices Hospitalist Medicine at the QEII Health Sciences Center, offering general medicine care. Her research interests include exploring a micro to macro perspective of healing, the connectivity of physical/mental/emotional/energetic bodies, and considering the cyclical patterns of connectivity between the individual and the larger biological ecology of earth.

Dr. Dawei Li was trained in human genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics. He is currently an associate professor and the director of genomic medicine of Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University. He has published 55 peer-reviewed papers. His lab has recently developed bioinformatics approaches for innovative deep sequencing data analyses, including genome-wide genotyping of transposable elements and virome-wide detection of viral integrations. His current research focuses on developing innovative genomic and omics research methods and applications to myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), aiming to find the root causes of the disease. His ME/CFS research over the next few years will involve identification of genetic variants using whole-genome sequencing; analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation; and analysis of the transcriptome using RNA-Seq. He will also study the links between endogenous retrovirus variants and their expression and the inflammatory immune response features observed in ME/CFS. The ultimate goal of his research is to inform diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of ME/CFS.

John F. Prescott is a retired veterinary bacteriologist and University Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph, where he was Chair of the Department of Pathobiology from 2003-2008. He has published extensively on bacterial infections in animals and has also been active for many years in promoting antimicrobial stewardship in Canadian agriculture and veterinary medicine. Although retired, he continues to publish on antimicrobial stewardship and on bacterial pathogenesis. He was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2008. His family has lived with CFS for over 30 years. He and his wife Cathy enjoy being grandparents.

Dr. Prud’homme graduated in veterinary medicine from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at University of Montreal in 1995. She also completed an internship in small animals practice at the same institute in 1996. Since 2008, Dr. Prud’homme has been no longer able to practice due to ME. She immediately got involved in understanding this disease after being diagnosed. She wanted to better understand what the best ways were to cope with it.

Dr. Prud’homme has been involved with the AQEM (Association québécoise de l’encéphalomyélite myalgique) since 2012. She is responsible for the scientific committee of the association. Given her medical training, she keeps the AQEM informed regarding new international research on ME, the possible treatments developed and to be developed in other international ME clinics and the best ways to manage the disease. She also brings a medical experience at the association and works on the advocacy level to get ME.

Dr. Punja has a background in clinical epidemiology, with a focus on rigorous, evidence-based, patient-centered approaches to clinical health research. Specifically, Dr. Punja has expertise in clinical trial design and conduct, and while most of her work has focused on mental health populations, the methods can be expanded and applied to assess a variety of interventions for a range of conditions.

She is grateful to be part of the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research Network, and looks forward to contributing to its research endeavours.

Dr. Sarah Selke is a Toronto-based family physician and associate staff member at the Environmental Health Clinic (EHC) at Women’s College Hospital. She joined the EHC in 2016, following completion of an Enhanced Skills degree in Environmental Health through the University of Toronto.

Dr. Selke completed her medical degree at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland in 2012, and completed her Family Medicine residency at Toronto East General Hospital. She currently sees patients with ME/CFS on an almost daily basis in both her family medicine practice and in her consultant role at the EHC. She has been involved in caring for those with ME/CFS from 2014, and enjoys educating colleagues, trainees and patients about the various facets of diagnosis and management of ME/CFS.

Joel Singer is a professor in the School of Population and Public Health where he has been a faculty member since 1990. He is the head of Methodology and Statistics at the Canadian HIV Trials Network since its inception in 1990 and the program head for Clinical Trials at the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.

He has been the lead methodological investigator on many national and international clinical trials across a variety of clinical areas including HIV, HPV, cardiology, intensive care medicine, nephrology and neonatology.

He has chaired many Data Safety Monitoring Boards (DSMB) and is the current chair of the DSMB for the Ontario Clinical Oncology Group.

Jeffery Smith is a designer, who worked in finance and publishing before being unable to work because of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). Ill for over two decades, as his abilities decreased he became involved ME advocacy, and is a founding member of Millions Missing Canada. He has used his strong motivation as an ill patient to reach out to Members of Parliament, the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Health Ministers Office to build healthy sincere relationships, that along with a smaller, and growing group of advocates, have helped guide the government to action over the past couple of years. As long as his health allows him, he wishes to help make things better for the Canadian ME population, particularly the most vulnerable with no hope.

Eleanor Stein MD FRCP(C)

Steering Committee Member

Clinical Assistant Professor
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta

Prior to joining the EHC, she completed a year-long fellowship in Clinical Environmental Health through the Department of Family and Community Medicine Enhanced Skills Program at the University of Toronto. Alongside her fellowship, she completed Functional Medicine training through the Institute of Functional Medicine and received her Certified Practitioner status. Earlier in her career, she was on staff for over 12 years at the The Four Villages Community Health Centre and previously had a private psychotherapy practice.

In addition to her work at the EHC, she presently serves as a consultant physician with Ontario’s eConsult physicians group, on the topics of Post COVID Condition fatigue and on environmentally linked complex chronic conditions. In June 2023, she joined Ontario’s Centre for Effective Practice as the Clinical Lead to support the development of a tool for primary care clinicians on the topics of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Fibromyalgia, and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS).

She has always had an avid interest in integrative approaches to health, wellness and preventative care. She graduated from McMaster University’s Family Medicine training program in 2001 and prior to this obtained her medical degree from McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine.

Sherri Todd joins the ICanCME Research Network as the Director for British Columbia of the National ME/FM Action Network, a patient-based Canadian charity that has been working on behalf of Canadians with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Fibromyalgia since 1993.

Among other accomplishments, this organization spearheaded the development of diagnostic and treatment protocols for ME and for Fibromyalgia and hosted an international research and clinical conference. The organization has been recognized in the Canadian House of Commons and Senate.

Ms. Todd started an association for ME patients in BC in 1988, and developed a network of patient representatives, support groups, a newsletter and professional contacts across the province. She moved to the National ME/FM Action Network a decade later.

In 2008, she was invited to be a founding member of the Community Advisory Committee of BC’s Complex Chronic Diseases Program located at the Women’s Hospital in Vancouver and has served on that committee ever since.

Dr. Ussher’s research interests involve understanding the molecular regulation by which the various organs in the body metabolize fuel from the food we eat (e.g., sugar, fat, protein, etc.) to produce energy. The intricate molecular network regulating these processes is disturbed in a number of human diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Therefore, an improved understanding of this molecular regulation may lead to the discovery of novel drug targets for treating these chronic diseases.

To pursue these research interests, his laboratory utilizes mouse genetics to modify genes (delete or overexpress) that produce protein/enzymes that they believe are key molecular regulators influencing how the body’s organs metabolize various fuel sources (e. g., carbohydrates, fatty acids). These genetically modified mouse models are subjected to various experimental models of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, or exercise, whereby disease outcomes, disease progression, and other clinically relevant parameters are assessed. By identifying the genes/proteins that are the most important contributors to metabolic regulation/dysregulation, his team hope to build a research platform using these targets to facilitate drug development for obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic diseases where defects in energy metabolism are implicated (e.g., fatty liver disease, chronic fatigue, etc.).

Dr. Sunita Vohra MD MSc FRCPC FCAHS is a clinician scientist with training in pediatrics, clinical pharmacology, and clinical epidemiology. She is a Centennial Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta. Her primary research interest is enhancing clinical research methods, including: i) innovative clinical trial design; ii) active surveillance in safety research; and iii) improved outcomes reporting. Most often she has applied this interest to advance knowledge regarding patient use of complementary therapies.

With over 200 peer reviewed journal articles and 24 book chapters published, Dr. Vohra’s accomplishments have been recognized nationally and internationally. In 2013, Dr. Vohra’s achievements were recognized by both the Dr. Roger’s Prize for excellence in complementary medicine research and induction as a Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, one of the highest honours for any member of the Canadian health research community. In 2016, Dr. Vohra received a Pioneer Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics.