Research Outputs

Artur Miralles Méharon, from our 2024 cohort, was a co-author on a high impact paper “Replicated blood-based biomarkers for myalgic encephalomyelitis not explicable by inactivity”, published in June 2025.

Beentjes, S. V., Miralles Méharon, A., Kaczmarczyk, J., Cassar, A., Samms, G. L., Hejazi, N. S., Khamseh, A., & Ponting, C. P. (2025). Replicated blood-based biomarkers for myalgic encephalomyelitis not explicable by inactivity. EMBO Molecular Medicine, 17(7), 1868–1891.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s44321-025-00258-8

It concerns the largest ever biological study of ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome) that has identified consistent blood differences associated with chronic inflammation, insulin resistance and liver disease.

Significantly, the results were mostly unaffected by patients’ activity levels, as low activity levels can sometimes hide the biological signs of illness, researchers say.

The volume and consistency of the blood differences support the long-term goal of developing a blood test to help diagnose ME/CFS. ME/CFS’ key feature, called post-exertional malaise, is a delayed dramatic worsening of symptoms following minor physical effort. 

Other symptoms include pain, brain fog and extreme energy limitation that does not improve with rest. Causes are unknown and there is currently no diagnostic test or cure.

Researchers at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer worked with colleagues in the University of Edinburgh’s Schools of Mathematics and Informatics to better understand the biology that underpins the condition.

They used data from the UK Biobank – a health database of over half a million people – to compare 1,455 ME/CFS patients with 131,000 healthy individuals. They examined more than 3,000 blood-based biomarkers and used advanced models to account for differences associated with age, sex, and activity levels. 

The results, which were replicated afterwards using data from the US, showed that hundreds of biomarkers differed between ME/CFS patients and healthy people. 

Some 116 significant differences were found in both men and women, a key finding as ME/CFS can affect sexes differently. The consistent results across both groups strengthens the reliability of the biomarkers.  The strongest biomarker differences were found in people who reported symptoms consistent with post-exertional malaise, highlighting its central role in the illness. 

Researchers believe these biomarker changes are more likely a result of ME/CFS, rather than the initial trigger of the illness.

University of Edinburgh researchers were supported by partners from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

• BBC news story

In December 2025, Artur Miralles Méharon attended EurIPS 2025 in Copenhagen. The conference brought together researchers from academia and industry, with a strong emphasis on methodological foundations, sustainability, uncertainty, and the translation of AI research into real-world applications.

Artur attended the Causality for Impact workshop, focused on the challenges in applying causal methods to real-world problems, particularly in health, earth and social sciences. Here he presented his first academic poster, entitled “Replicated blood-based biomarkers for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis not explainable by inactivity”, which enabled constructive discussion with both method developers and applied researchers.

In July 2025, our student Zhijie Yao attended the ISMB/ECCB 2025 conference in Liverpool, jointly organised by the International Society for Computational Biology and ECCB, recognised as the world’s largest conference in bioinformatics and computational biology.

Zhijie presented his very first academic poster, co-authored with Ava Khamseh and Sjoerd Beentjes, showcasing their research using a debiased statistical estimation method to extract valuable insights from high‑dimensional datasets.

In June 2025, our students Elisa Castagnari and Núria Fàbrega Ribas had a fantastic experience representing AI4BI at HealTAC2025 in Glasgow. 

For Elisa, it was a milestone — her first poster presentation, accompanied by a lightning talk, both of which sparked insightful discussions around her research on improving digital healthcare solutions with data interoperability and LLMs.

In March 2026, our 2024 cohort researcher Melina Müller attended COSYNE 2026 in Cascais, Portugal, alongside her supervisors Nina Kudryashova and Luke Bashford.

They organised and delivered a workshop on the theory and practice of closed-loop neural stimulation in humans. It aimed to catalyze the next wave of systems neuroscience research by moving from passive recording of neural activity to active closed-loop control. This brought together both theorists and experimentalists, providing a focused environment to discuss the challenges with bridging the gap between control theory algorithms and experimental implementation.

Melina said it was especially valuable to engage directly with leading researchers whose work has influenced her own, and to build relationships with them. The amount of enthusiasm the workshop gained demonstrates the relevance and growing interest in this area.