The primary focus of the Cheney Institute, PLLC and its new website is to document and discuss our current understanding of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) with its increasingly recognized core problem at the level of the energy generation system of the cell known as the mitochondria. Indeed, mitochondrial dysfunction is the primary underlying cause of the unique echocardiographic features seen in CFS as well as many cardiovascular and orthostatic symptoms of CFS. Whether mitochondrial dysfunction is the cause of CFS or another effect of a yet deeper problem will be explored on this website. The Cheney Institute will also continue to engage in various research projects with other investigators with an increasing focus on genetic and metabolic data analysis using next generation genomics and next generation metabolomics. One analysis looks at gene insertions and deletions as well as gene adducts tied to cellular DNA and the other analysis looks at how CFS metabolism is expressed uniquely in each individual and perturbed by unique environmental insults (infections, toxins and physical as well as emotional stressors) that alter both gene expression and tertiary protein structures.
