Action for ME, the Schmidt Initiative for Long COVID, and the Complex Disorders Alliance (CODA) announce the launch of Sequence ME & Long Covid – the world’s largest long-read, whole-genome study of any disease.
Sequence ME & Long Covid is a £20 million research initiative designed to explore the root causes of ME and Long Covid using long-read, whole-genome sequencing.
Partners, The Schmidt Initiative for Long COVID and CODA have provided $200,000 and $50,000, respectively, to contribute towards the cost of this first phase.
We are delighted to kickstart this groundbreaking project. The success of Sequence ME & Long Covid is only possible because of partnerships such as these with the Schmidt Initiative for Long COVID and CODA. Our focus now shifts to securing funding for the whole genome sequencing and accelerating progress towards potential diagnostics and effective treatments.
"CODA is proud to stand alongside Action for ME and the Schmidt Initiative for Long COVID in this landmark collaboration. Patients with ME/CFS and Long Covid have waited far too long for answers. By combining forces, we can move faster to identify the genetic biomarkers that help explain what is driving illness and, importantly, begin to match patients biologically to treatments. This partnership can accelerate real options, at the scale and speed patients deserve.”
"Chronic diseases like ME/CFS and Long Covid are incredibly complex, presenting with hundreds of symptoms, affecting multiple parts of the body and defying easy answers. We hope others will join us in supporting Action for ME's efforts to bring hope to the millions of people struggling with these conditions."
Having now secured a portion of funding for phase 1, and with 9,000 ME samples already in place through DecodeME, our focus will now move to putting all the foundations in place for this study. This includes building strategic partnerships and securing funds to undertake the remaining phases of the study.
As part of this funding, we will be recruiting a full-time Partnerships and Business Development Manager to help drive this work.
This phase will also see the:
All of which will be vital to the project’s success.
Once further funding is secured, we will immediately move into sample collection and analysis – aiming to collect and sequence 9,000 Long Covid samples alongside sequencing the already obtained 9,000 ME samples.
Future updates on the study’s progress will be shared publicly as soon as possible.
