In this podcast Dr Christopher Armstrong is presenting at the 2024 Emerge Australia Round Table event at Parliament House in Canberra.
Dr Armstrong completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne where he was first to apply metabolomics to multiple biofluid types in order to assess energy production capacity in ME/CFS patients. This work culminated in the hypothesis that reduced energy production capacity is a feature of ME/CFS and can be linked directly to fatigue and gut symptoms. After completing his PhD, Dr Armstrong was recruited to join Open Medicine Foundation as a Science Liaison while continuing his research at Stanford University as a Visiting Scholar. While in the US he further refined the energy production hypothesis around ME/CFS patients using less efficient fuels (amino acids) for ATP production and the potential harmful byproducts of this. This hypothesis has sprouted multiple projects and new ideas regarding the biology that might commonly underlay ME/CFS.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Open Medicine Foundation Australia was setup in order to establish the Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration with support from Emerge Australia. Dr Armstrong was instilled as Director of this collaborative research hub in Australia and moved back to the University of Melbourne after several successful grant applications.
Since 2021, Dr Armstrong has built a research group focused on understanding the disease dynamics and pathologies that exist in ME/CFS and long COVID. He follows a philosophy that chronic complex post-infection diseases are heterogenous and understanding the biology/pathologies within the individual is necessary to begin targeting successful treatments. He is a member of the OMF Scientific Advisory Board and the Emerge Australia Medical & Scientific Advisory Committee.
Listen in more detail to Dr Armstrong in his additional Imagine podcast with Anne Wilson and learn how you can support policy change.
We are delighted to share Emerge Australia Ambassador Bloom with her rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine to open and close our podcasts.
