Categories
News Press Releases

Founding father of Human Genome Project joins Doctors with M.E. with leading evidence based policy expert as Honorary Fellows

Doctors with M.E. today formally announces two Honorary Fellows, recognised for the value of their contributions to ME/CFS scientific progress, Professors Ron Davis and Brian Hughes.

Professor Ron Davis is a global authority on biochemistry, genetics and genomics, Director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center (SGTC) at Stanford University and Director of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Open Medicine Foundation. It has been said of Davis that “a substantial number of the major genetic advances of the past 20 years can be traced back to Davis in some way.” Not least among these, he was an initial proponent to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of what eventually became the Human Genome Project, which the SGTC participated in.

Davis’ work at the Open Medicine Foundation and the Stanford ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center is yielding advanced new techniques, findings and avenues for future research. He is part of a high-level interagency work and research group with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NIH, the Veterans Administration, and the Department of Defense looking at the long-term consequences of COVID-19 and Long COVID.

Professor Brian Hughes has become synonymous with dissecting failures of public and private sector policies that promote psychological interventions without evidence of efficacy or value for money. He is a Professor of Psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway, a member of the Irish HSE National Working Group on ME and sits on the Science Advisory Board of the DecodeME genome-wide association study. He is also active in the voluntary sector as Scientific Advisor for Hope 4 ME & Fibro Northern Ireland and is Chair of the International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organisation’s Global Research Initiative.

Hughes coined the term “eminence-based medicine”, which is one of the most widely used phrases to describe the industrialised divorce of medical norms from ME/CFS science. A prominent advocate for scientific psychology, evidence-based policy, and the role of psychology in society, he writes widely on the psychology of empiricism and of empirically disputable claims, especially as they pertain to science, health, medicine, and politics.

Citation

Allan, Nicole, “Who Will Tomorrow’s Historians Consider Today’s Greatest Inventors?”, The Atlantic, October 23, 2013

Prof. Ron Davis

Honorary Fellow

Professor of Biochemistry and Genetics, Stanford University, Director, Stanford Genome Technology Center, Director, Open Medicine Foundation Scientific Advisory Board, Director, Stanford ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center, Advisor, Federal Interagency Long Covid Initiative (CDC, NIH, VA, DoD), Member, Stanford Cancer Institute

Prof. Brian Hughes

Honorary Fellow

Professor of Psychology, Specialist, Evidence-Based Policy and Empiricism, National University of Ireland, Galway, Member, HSE (Ireland) National Working Group on ME, Science Advisory Board, DecodeME, Scientific Advisor, Hope 4 ME & Fibro Northern Ireland, Chair, Global Research Initiative, International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organisation