Staff Profile
Dr Cara Tomas
Research Associate
- Email: cara.tomas@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: 0191 208 8748
- Address: Translational and Clinical Research Institute
M4.084 4th Floor Leech Building
Medical School
Newcastle University
NE2 4HH
Background
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disease that affects an estimates 250,000 people in the UK alone and has a high impact on the quality of life of patients. I am interested in the aetiopathogenesis of ME/CFS with particular focus on cellular bioenergetic function within the patient group. The aim of my work is to further understanding around the pathogenesis of disease and identify biomarkers that have the potential to be developed into diagnostic tests.
Research
Current projects
- Investigating abnormalities in AMPK activation and mitochondrial function in primary skeletal muscle cells in ME/CFS
- The role of cellular bioenergetic dysfunction in ME/CFS
Previous projects
- Investigating abnormalities in bioenergetic function in Primary Sjögren syndrome
- Investigating the cortisol-sleep interaction in CFS
- Mitochondrial DNA analysis of severely affected CFS patients
- Brain natriuretic peptide levels in CFS
Publications
- Xu J, Potter M, Tomas C, Elson JL, Morten KJ, Poulton J, Wang N, Jin H, Hou Z, Huang WE. A new approach to find biomarkers in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) by single-cell Raman micro-spectroscopy. Analyst 2019, 144(3), 913-920.
- Venter M, Tomas C, Pienaar IS, Strassheim V, Erasmus E, Ng W-F, Howell N, Newton JL, Van der Westhuizen FH, Elson JL. MtDNA population variation in Myalgic encephalomyelitis/Chronic fatigue syndrome in two populations: a study of mildly deleterious variants. Scientific Reports 2019, 9(1), 2914.
- Tomas C, Brown AE, Newton JL, Elson JL. Mitochondrial complex activity in permeabilised cells of chronic fatigue syndrome patients using two cell types. PeerJ 2019, 7, e6500.
- Tomas C, Finkelmeyer A, Hodgson T, MacLachlan L, MacGowan GA, Blamire AM, Newton JL. Elevated brain natriuretic peptide levels in chronic fatigue syndrome associate with cardiac dysfunction: a case control study. Open Heart 2017, 4(2), e000697.
- Tomas C, Newton J. Metabolic abnormalities in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: a mini-review. Biochemical Society Transactions 2018, 46(3), 547-553.
- Tomas C, Brown A, Strassheim V, Elson J, Newton J, Manning P. Cellular bioenergetics is impaired in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. PLoS ONE 2017, 12(10), e0186802.
- Tomas C, Newton J, Watson S. A review of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function in chronic fatigue syndrome. ISRN Neuroscience 2013, 2013, 784520.