College of the Pacific
Welcome to the Pacific Fatigue Laboratory
The Pacific Fatigue Laboratory (PFL), in partnership with the Workwell Foundation, is a research, clinical and teaching laboratory focused on the functional aspects of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and other fatigue-related disorders. We aim to educate patients in conjunction with health, fitness and legal professionals.
Despite growing scientific evidence, there has been a strong belief by many physicians, insurers and others that these disorders are psychological. The Pacific Fatigue Lab has developed unique testing protocols that help more accurately assess the physiological status of patients who may be afflicted with fatigue-related disorders.
Our goal is to facilitate an understanding of the biological basis for fatigue and provide objectively determined functional evaluations and therapeutic interventions that will improve quality of life for this population.
- Our laboratory provides comprehensive disability evaluations using cardiopulmonary exercise testing and other measures to evaluate the function of multiple body systems.
- We are engaged in ongoing research projects with Pacific professors in Sport Sciences, Physical Therapy, Bioengineering and Psychology.
- Outside of the University, the PFL has active collaborations with Stanford University, the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease and Ithaca College.
- Our lab is staffed primarily with students and faculty researchers working together in their respective areas of expertise. Graduate and undergraduate students are an integral part of our lab and are granted responsibilities normally reserved for those with advanced degrees.
PFL Highlights
Student research projects: 26 undergraduate and graduate students have been involved in research projects at the lab.
Collaborations: We have established 12 organizational/university affiliations and have 8 physician collaborators.
Funding: Funding has been generated from six separate projects.
Our team has served as ad hoc reviewers for 10 journals. We are the only group to have two members serve on the Department of Health and Human Services' Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee, which advises the Secretary of Health and Human Services by making recommendations on all aspects of CFS.
Fatigue Syndrome News
New XMRV Retrovirus Findings Presented at Pacific
Vincent Lombardi, Ph.D., and Judy Mikovits, Ph.D., two of the researchers who recently announced that a retrovirus may be linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, came to the University of the Pacific on October 26, 2009 to discuss their findings.
Download the article published in the October 8 issue of Science magazine, and a perspective article in the same issue by John M. Coffin and Jonathan P. Stoye:
A New Virus for Old Diseases? [590 Kb]
PFL Staff Speak Out at CFS Advisory Committee Meeting in Washington D.C.
Members of the Pacific Fatigue Lab traveled to Washington D.C. to support the importance of the breakthrough XMRV retroviral research and its implications for CFS at the October 29 -30 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee meeting. They also voiced their dismay at the CDC's lack of leadership related to chronic fatigue syndrome and backed formal recommendations made to the Department of Health and Human Services. Participants from PFL included Staci Stevens, Founding Executive Director of the lab; Dr. Chris Snell, chair of the Sport Sciences Department and member of the CFS Advisory Committee; Michelle Mielke, Assistant Professor, Sport Sciences Department; Laura Black, MD, the Medical Director for the lab; and graduate student Harnoor Signh, who is a research assistant in the lab.
Staci Stevens
Chris Snell
Harnoor Signh
Written drafts of testimony provided by Staci Stevens, Dr. Laura Black and Harnoor Singh at the CFS Advisory Committee meeting:
Staci Stevens [12.4 Kb]
Dr. Laura Black [33.9 Kb]
Harnoor Singh [38.1 Kb]
See additional information about the meeting and the recommendations made by the CFS Advisory Committee:
CFS Advisory Committee Holds Timely Session
From left: Laura Black, MD, Pacific Fatigue Lab’s Medical Director; Michelle Mielke, Assistant Professor in the Sport Sciences Department; and Staci Stevens, Founder and Executive Director of the Pacific Fatigue Lab.
