International ME/CFS conference, May 2025 in Berlin, supported by the ME/CFS Research Foundation

The third international scientific meeting of the Charité Fatigue Centre will take place in Berlin on 12-13 May 2025, organised in collaboration with the ME/CFS Research Foundation. A number of renowned international experts have already confirmed their attendance. The hybrid event is aimed at a specialist audience and will focus on the latest results from ongoing ME/CFS research projects.

The “International ME/CFS Conference 2025 – Understand, Diagnose, Treat” is directed at the medical and research community, including clinicians, medical professionals, scientists and interdisciplinary experts in the fields of medicine and biology. The conference around the international ME/CFS awareness day on 12 May will be centred on the care, research, and treatment of ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and post-COVID syndrome . All presentations will be held in English . Registered participants can attend the two-day hybrid event online via live stream. Videos of the presentations will be made available on our website after the conference.

The official conference website will soon provide more details regarding registration (free of charge), Agenda, CME credits , and regarding the submission of abstracts for scientific poster presentations.

Under the stewardship of Carmen Scheibenbogen, Director of the Division of Immunodeficiencies and Post-infectious Diseases and the Charité Fatigue Center (CFC), Berlin, the conference will once again bring together leading experts to present the latest research on ME/CFS. Participants will be discussing the needs and advancements in medical care, and delve into the developing understanding of disease mechanisms, from cardiovascular dysregulation and mitochondrial pathology to immune dysregulation and autoimmunity. A major focus at the conference in spring 2025 will be the presentation of recent and late breaking results from clinical trials, in an effort to illuminate global efforts to develop curative treatments. Speakers’ contributions will be centred on ME/CFS, but will also shine a light on post-COVID syndrome research.

List of confirmed speakers and chairs for the International ME/CFS Conference 2025
(in alphabetical order, as of today – the list will be updated on the conference website):

• Jeroen den Dunnen, Amsterdam University Medical Center, The Netherlands
• Øystein Fluge, University of Bergen, Norway
• Kathryn Hoffmann, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
• Claudia Kedor, Charité – University Medicine Berlin, Germany
• Michael Peluso, University of California San Francisco, USA
• Christian Puta, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany
• David Putrino, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA
• Birgit Sawitzki, Charité – University Medicine, Berlin, Germany
• Carmen Scheibenbogen, Charité – University Medicine, Berlin, Germany
• Yehuda Shoenfeld, Sheba University Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel
• Fridbjörn Sigurdsson, Landspitali – University Hospital, Reykjavik, Island
• Kristian Sommerfelt, University of Bergen, Norway
• Jürgen Steinacker, University of Ulm, Germany
• Michael Stingl, Votivpark Specialist Centre, Vienna, Austria
• David Systrom, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, USA
• Karl Johan Tronstad, University of Bergen, Norway
• Takashi Yamamura, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Japan

To inform ME/CFS patients and the general public about the current state of ME/CFS research, the Charité Fatigue Centrum and the ME/CFS Research Foundation are hosting a complementary "ME/CFS Symposium 2025 – Research and Therapy Studies in Germany" on the afternoon of 13 May 2025. This separate online event will be held in German and is also free of charge for registered participants. We will publish more information on this shortly. 

The ME/CFS Research Foundation is organising and funding the International ME/CFS Conference 2025 and the ME/CFS Symposium 2025 as part of our commitment to networking between leading researchers. Abstracts and video recordings from last year's ME/CFS Conference 2023 and ME/CFS Symposium 2023 are available on our website.

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How can you support the work of the ME/CFS Research Foundation?

There is still a long way to go before diagnosis, care and treatment of ME/CFS patients will one day become a medical and social standard. We at the ME/CFS Research Foundation are focussing on biomedical research, which we see as the key element in solving these problems (more on this in our research funding strategy and in our half year report summer 2024, which summarises our activities). To do this, we need extensive support from private donors – those affected, relatives, families, friends, associations, schools, networks, companies, initiatives, event organisers and all supporters. And if you are not able to provide direct support, you can share our story and motivate others to help. Because only together can such a feat be achieved.

We fully translate donations and other support into scientifically excellent research, networking and ultimately visible successes, i.e. better ME/CFS diagnostics and therapies. We are happy to work together with other organisations and initiatives - please contact us!

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