Fehrer, Annick, Windzio, Lara, Schoening, Simon et al. · Autoimmunity reviews · 2026 · DOI
Nearly 4,000 ME/CFS researchers and experts gathered at an international conference in May 2025 to share the latest discoveries about this serious illness. They discussed how ME/CFS develops, better ways to diagnose it, and new treatments being tested. The conference highlighted that while COVID-19 has brought more attention and funding to ME/CFS research, the disease is still not well understood and needs much more study.
This summary of expert consensus from a major international conference provides patients and clinicians with a comprehensive overview of current research priorities and emerging understanding of ME/CFS mechanisms. The emphasis on the urgent need for sustained, adequately funded research reflects the scientific community's recognition that ME/CFS causes severe disability yet remains poorly understood compared to other chronic diseases.
As an editorial summary of a conference rather than a primary research study, this does not present new experimental data or prove specific diagnostic criteria or treatments are effective. It does not establish causal mechanisms for ME/CFS or validate any single pathophysiological model, but rather reflects expert consensus on areas requiring further investigation.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Fehrer, Annick, Windzio, Lara, Schoening, Simon, Steiner, Sophie, Aschenbrenner, Anna C, Babel, Nina, et al. (2026). Expert perspectives on Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome - Insights from the 3<sup>rd</sup> International Conference of the Charité Fatigue Center.. Autoimmunity reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autrev.2026.104043
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-fehrer-2026-expert-perspectives,
author = {Fehrer, Annick and Windzio, Lara and Schoening, Simon and Steiner, Sophie and Aschenbrenner, Anna C and Babel, Nina and Behrends, Uta and Bellmann-Strobl, Judith and Cammà, Guido and Cash, Alan and Doehner, Wolfram and den Dunnen, Jeroen and Fluge, Øystein and Franke, Christiana and Hoffmann, Kathryn and Kedor, Claudia and Kim, Laura and Löhden, Wiebke and Mella, Olav and Mihatsch, Lorenz L and Peluso, Michael J and Puta, Christian and Putrino, David and Ramoji, Anuradha and Sato, Wakiro and Sawitzki, Birgit and Schlieper, Georg and Schoenfeld, Yehuda and Seifert, Martina and Sigurdsson, Fridbjörn and Slaghekke, Anouk and Sommerfelt, Kristian and Sotzny, Franziska and Stein, Elisa and Steinacker, Juergen M and Stingl, Michael and Systrom, David M and Tronstad, Karl J and Wirth, Klaus and Wörmann, Bernhard and Wüst, Rob C I and Yamamura, Takashi and Scheibenbogen, Carmen},
title = {Expert perspectives on Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome - Insights from the 3<sup>rd</sup> International Conference of the Charité Fatigue Center.},
journal = {Autoimmunity reviews},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1016/j.autrev.2026.104043},
note = {PubMed: 41895458},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/fehrer-2026-expert-perspectives},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-25. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/fehrer-2026-expert-perspectives
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