Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): An Overview of Symptoms and Current Research

Karina Chavarria holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Florida International University and a Master’s in Public Health Biology from Johns Hopkins. With a career spanning biomedical research, organ and tissue donation, science education, and biotech leadership, she has been deeply committed to advancing healthcare and science. Her passion for biology began after a brain tumor diagnosis in her late teens, fueling her dedication to research and patient advocacy. Now disabled due to myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), she focuses on raising awareness and pushing for increased funding to better understand and treat this debilitating disease.

Dr. Peter Rowe is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is the inaugural Sunshine Natural Wellbeing Foundation Professor of Chronic Fatigue and Related Disorders and serves as the Director of the Chronic Fatigue Clinic at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

His areas of clinical expertise include chronic fatigue syndrome and other disorders characterized by fatigue and orthostatic intolerance. Dr. Rowe and his colleagues were the first to describe the relationship between myalgic ecephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and treatable orthostatic intolerance syndromes, as well as the association between Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and ME/CFS.

After receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto, Dr. Rowe earned his medical degree at McMaster University Medical School in Ontario. He completed his residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins and completed his fellowship in General Pediatric Academic Development. He was on the staff at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario from 1987-1991 before returning to Johns Hopkins in 1991.

Dr. Michael Zeineh received a B.S. in Biology at Caltech in 1995 and obtained his M.D.-Ph.D. from UCLA in 2003. After internship also at UCLA, he went on to radiology residency and neuroradiology fellowship both at Stanford. He has been faculty in Stanford Neuroradiology since 2010. He spearheads many initiatives in advanced clinical imaging at Stanford, including clinical fMRI and DTI. Simultaneously, he runs a lab with the goal of discovering new imaging abnormalities in neurodegenerative disorders, with a focus on detailed microcircuitry in regions such as the hippocampal formation. He uses advanced, multi-modal in vivo and ex vivo methods, with applications to neurologic disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, mild traumatic brain injury, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Dr. James is a world leader in molecular imaging with over 20 years of experience in radiochemistry and developing novel positron emission tomography (PET) tracers for imaging innate and adaptive immune responses in the context of neurological diseases. Currently, she is pioneering clinical PET/MR imaging methods to investigate whole body inflammation in patients with ME/CFS, using an inflammation-targeting tracer she developed.

She is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Neurology, within the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS). She received her BS in pharmacology and organic chemistry at the University of Sydney, where she also earned her PhD in pharmacology and was awarded the University Medal. Dr. James has multiple patented radiotracers, four of which are currently being used in clinical neuroimaging research studies at Stanford and around the world.    The overall goal of her work is to create imaging tools to uncover the molecular underpinnings of chronic illnesses and facilitate the development and optimization of effective treatment strategies for such diseases.

Maya received her bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego. After gaining a few years of experience in medical administration, she joined the radiology team at Stanford in September of 2024. Since then, she has been the primary coordinator for both ME/CFS studies in the radiology department under the research leadership of Dr. Michael Zeineh and Dr. Michelle James. Maya’s passion for ME/CFS research largely stems from hearing the experiences of patients she’s met along the way.  She is looking forward to continuing to shed light on the opportunities to participate in research at Stanford in the hopes of contributing to much needed research in the community.