About This Resource

Built for patients, and everyone who loves them.

Hi, I’m Sophia S., a health professional and patient advocate. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the University of Texas at Austin, where I graduated with University Honors and served as a UT Service Scholar. The curriculum spanned hard sciences including genetics, biochemistry, microbiology, and immunology, alongside health psychology and a core public health series covering epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, and health policy. Alongside my BS in Public Health, I completed a degree in Business of Healthcare from UT Austin’s McCombs School of Business, a program integrating health systems management, operational strategy, health law, medical ethics, and the regulatory and policy frameworks that govern how the U.S. healthcare system operates, from institutional liability to the legislative structures shaping treatment access for patients with complex chronic conditions.

My research background includes the Stanford Medicine Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, where I worked on induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells and native tissue modeling for pulmonary arterial hypertension, with applications across other chronic disease states. At the Stanford Medicine Canary Center for Cancer Research, my work focused on nanoengineering approaches in early cancer detection and treatment. My research background also includes the UT Austin Virtual Pharmaceutical Drug Screening and Discovery Laboratory. Starting at the onset of the pandemic, I also served in the City of Austin Public Health COVID-19 unit, managing case data and investigations across a city-wide health system. I authored a white paper presented on behalf of the Texas Department of State Health Services to recommend legislature for public commercial health law in the state of Texas, delivered before a Texas State Congressional Hearing. My clinical experience includes Guardant Health, a pioneer in liquid biopsy and the first non-invasive early cancer detection screening technology, where I worked across clinical operations, bioinformatics, and analytics.

When I began researching ME/CFS in depth, I brought that same background to it, and quickly found that no single resource existed that was both clinically rigorous and actually readable for the people who need it most. What was available was fragmented, vague, or buried in academic papers behind paywalls. This site has been over eight years in the making: thousands of hours compiling peer-reviewed research, synthesizing clinical guidelines, and listening closely to what patients and caregivers consistently report about this illness and what, if anything, helps. So I built the resource I wished had existed.

Everything here was written to hold two things at once: clinical accuracy, and a clear-eyed understanding of what patients and their families actually need. That shaped all of it, from the symptom guides and pacing science to the crash management tools, comorbidity sections, personalized fact sheet generator, and the full reference list.

Know ME/CFS is completely free, has no ads, and accepts no funding from pharmaceutical companies, supplement brands, or commercial entities. It exists solely to serve patients, caregivers, and the clinicians who support them.

If this resource has helped you, please share it with a newly diagnosed patient, a skeptical doctor, or a confused family member. That’s the whole point.

✉  Contact Sophia