SIGNAL

A decentralized discovery platform for emerging therapeutic devices in ME/CFS and Long COVID

This project is built around a device lending library. Patients diagnosed with ME/CFS or Long COVID borrow promising therapeutic devices, shipped directly to their homes at no cost to them, for a 1-3 month lending period. While borrowing, participants contribute standardized longitudinal data through the Brain Inflammation Collaborative/Solve ME unhide® Solve Together platform. This allows each lending cycle to be a real-world research opportunity.

SIGNAL will address three unmet needs in the ME/CFS and Long COVID community:

Generate real-world evidence on patients' responses to promising therapeutic devices, with a focus on identifying patient subgroups for which each treatment is most effective.
Improve patient access by offering a "try before you buy" device lending library, so that expensive devices that might help are no longer out of reach.
Share findings quickly with the community, not just in academic papers years from now. Share accessible reports that tell patients which devices show promise, for whom, and for which symptoms.

Patients interested in participating in the SIGNAL study and device lending library can sign up and follow along as SIGNAL launches here:

Vielight Neuro Gamma
(Photobiomodulation)

Transcranial + intranasal near-infrared light (810 nm, 40 Hz gamma). Light penetrates a few centimeters into the brain tissue.

Truvaga
(Cervical Vagus Nerve Stimulation)

Handheld, non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation held to the neck.

Meet the Team

Co-PI

Maya Lindemann,

RN, BSN

Maya Lindemann was a School Nurse, RWJF Clinical Scholars Fellow, as well as a Scientific & Exhibit Diver for the Aquarium of the Pacific and a Hyperbaric Chamber volunteer before developing ME/CFS from COVID-19. Maya received her BSN from the University of Michigan.

Co-PI

Todd Davenport,

DPT, PhD, MPH

Todd E. Davenport, PT, DPT, PhD, MPH, FAPTA, is Professor and Chair of the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Program, Stockton, CA campus. He has done extensive research into ME/CFS and related conditions, particularly on the clinical presentation and systems-level pathophysiology, focusing on the key hallmark of these conditions, post-exertional malaise/post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion.

Project Director

Tess Falor,

PhD

Tess Falor has a PhD in Earth and Planetary Science and worked with NASA on the Artemis mission. She is Founder/CSO of Renegade Research and PI of the Remission Biome patient-led research project, which was featured in Science News (“How patient-led research could speed up medical innovation”) and ran a decentralized study of lactate in ME/CFS and Long COVID. Tess is an ME/CFS patient.

Advisor

Rivka Solomon,

Rivka Solomon is an ME/LC advocate with 3 decades of experience working with patients, advocacy orgs, members of Congress, media, clinicians and researchers. She is or has been an Advisor/Community Rep for: the Selin Lab, UMass; Kumar Lab, HiFiBiO; Putrino’s Mt. Sinai CoRE clinic; NIH RECOVER TLC (Agent Selection Working Group and Stellate Ganglion Block Clinical Trial Design Working Group). Rivka is an ME/CFS patient.

Medical Advisor

John Haughton,

MD, MS

John Haughton is the Chief Medical Officer at Renegade Research. He provides clinical guidance for the research studies. John received his medical degree from University of Michigan Medical School and has been in practice for more than 35 years.

Advisor

Jarred Younger,

PhD

Jarred Younger uses neuroimaging, pharmaceutical, and immunological techniques to understand and treat chronic diseases, like ME/CFS. He believes that low-level inflammation of the brain drives pain, fatigue, depression, and cognitive decline in millions of people. He uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), pharmacologic MRI (phfMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) neuroimaging techniques.

SIGNAL

Vielight Neuro Gamma (Photobiomodulation)

Truvaga (Cervical Vagus Nerve Stimulation)

Meet the Team

Vielight Neuro Gamma
(Photobiomodulation)

Truvaga
(Cervical Vagus Nerve Stimulation)