OUR TEAM
Beth Pollack
Email Beth: Bethp@mit.edu
Research Scientist in the MIT Department of Biological Engineering
Beth leads research on the connections, comorbidities, and shared pathophysiology among a group of infection-associated chronic illnesses, with particular interest in their less studied pathologies. She has expertise in ME/CFS, Long COVID, and Connective Tissue Disorders, and leads the lab’s expansion into these illnesses.
Beth is a Harvard-educated Research Scientist at MIT where she leads biomedical research on a group of complex chronic illnesses and the connections between them. Beth studies how these illnesses overlap, why they frequently co-occur, and their shared pathologies. She is building and leading a cross-illness unit of research called Project Connect at MIT. It encompasses multiple studies and research projects that map overlapping and interlocking pathophysiology and rates of comorbidities across related chronic diseases in order to accelerate solutions. Through an interdisciplinary cross-illness approach, Beth investigates key mechanistic connections that have been historically siloed and overlooked, aiming to reveal important new insights into chronic disease pathologies and potential therapeutic targets.
Beth studies the co-occurring illness group of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), long COVID, chronic Lyme disease, dysautonomia/postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), small fiber neuropathy, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, and connective tissue disorders like hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS). She has particular expertise in ME/CFS and long COVID, and a focus on examining mechanisms of less studied pathologies shared across illnesses such as connective tissue and spinal disorders, environmental sensitivities (such as to mold and chemicals), and reproductive health conditions. Beth is especially interested in advancing cross-illness research with multiple illness comparator cohorts, and in accelerating research on these illnesses towards clinical trials. Identifying therapeutic targets and potential treatments is imperative, including ones that target pathologies and pathomechanisms shared by multiple illnesses.
Beth develops and helps design new and future research directions for the Tal Research Group. The lab began with a focus on chronic Lyme disease, and Beth spearheads the lab’s expansion into researching associated illnesses, such as developing new research projects on ME/CFS, environmental sensitivities, and connective tissue and spinal disorders across illnesses. She contributed to both the study design and survey writing of the lab’s MAESTRO clinical study, the largest clinical study in MIT history. She collaborates on three clinical studies, and brings a particular interest in screening for and analyzing for comorbidities and shared pathologies in clinical studies on these illnesses. She contributes ideation, research, and writing to the lab’s studies and manuscripts, and has led some of the lab’s funding and grant-writing work.
Beth aims to conduct clinically-impactful, translational research that advances knowledge of chronic diseases and their risk factors, helping physicians and patients improve diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. She also supports patient involvement and patient expertise in biomedical research. All of these conditions disproportionately impact female patients, have lengthy diagnostic delays and few official treatments, and are under-researched compared to their disease burdens. Patients commonly develop several of these multi-system illnesses simultaneously and from multiple successive triggers, yet science and clinical care are only beginning to understand and address this complexity. It will be critical to explore why women are more likely to develop these illnesses and to study female pathological immune responses to infections and environmental exposures. Beth is excited and proud to be an inaugural member of the Tal Research Group at MIT!
Appointments and Activities in the Field
The National Institutes of Health
● Chair, NIH ME/CFS Less Studied Pathologies Subgroup (2023-24)
● Member, NIH ME/CFS Research Roadmap Working Group (2023-24)
● Organized and led NIH Research Webinar
The goal of the NIH ME/CFS Research Roadmap Working Group is to define and advise the NIH on research priorities for the field and to design a national strategic plan to advance research on ME/CFS towards therapeutics and clinical trials. Beth is honored to have been invited by the NIH to serve on this working group and to chair its Less Studied Pathologies subgroup. She led organizing of a 4-hour NIH webinar summarizing the current research, research gaps, and research priorities related to less studied ME/CFS pathologies. These include topics such as mast cell activation disorders, connective tissue disorders, spinal conditions, GI conditions, neuroendocrine dysfunction, and reproductive health in ME/CFS - all topics that greatly impact many patients but are under-researched.
This landmark research webinar marks the first time that the NIH has ever discussed some of these topics, such as connective tissue, spinal and reproductive health in ME/CFS, and is the first webinar of its kind solely focused on these topics in the field. Beth also gave three talks and moderated this webinar. As chair of the subgoup, Beth is co-author of the NIH’s report on ME/CFS research priorities, and wrote the report’s sections on Less Studied Pathologies.
The Obama Foundation
● Obama Foundation United States Leader (2024-2025)
Beth is honored to be appointed as an Obama Foundation US Leader. The program selected 100 people leading high-impact work on the most pressing issues the US faces, from climate change to immigration. From over 6,000 applicants, a total of 205 leaders were chosen for the US and international programs combined. Beth is proud to be representing chronic illness and women’s health, and hopes to bring the knowledge and experiences gained from the program to support work advancing systemic change and and progress for people with chronic illnesses.
Patient-Led Research Collaborative (PLRC)
● Research Collaborator, PLRC (2022-Present)
● Member, Biomedical Research Fund Panel, PLRC (2022-23)
● Advisor/Collaborator on a Clinical Sleep Study on Long COVID and ME/CFS at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (2023-Present)
Beth is a PLRC research collaborator, advising and collaborating on multiple projects, papers, and research priorities. Beth also served on PLRC’s Biomedical Research Fund Panel, which awarded nearly $5 million in grants to fund innovative Long COVID and ME/CFS research studies. Beth helped set research priorities, co-write the RFA, review and score grants, and co-develop study protocols including requiring screening for comorbid illnesses in all funded research, as well as other protocols (such as lumbar puncture guidelines) for the protection of study participants.
Through PLRC, Beth serves as a collaborator/advisor to Dr. Janet Mullington’s clinical sleep study at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. It studies patterns and mechanisms of sleep dysfunction in Long COVID and ME/CFS patients.
UMass Chan Medical School
● Research Collaborator, The Selin Lab (2023-Present)
The Selin Lab is an immunology lab focused on identifying diagnostic biomarkers for ME/CFS as well as potential treatments. Beth co-wrote a grant with the lab and is collaborating on research projects.
University of Melbourne, ME/CFS Neuroendocrinology Research Program
● Collaborator, Menstrual Cycle and Neuroendocrine Clinical Study on Long COVID and ME/CFS (2024-Present)
Beth is collaborating on a first-of-its-kind study tracking daily hormone and immune markers and symptom fluctuations around two menstrual cycles in ME/CFS and Long COVID patients. Beth is contributing to study design, ideation, and survey questions. Study is led by PI Natalie Thomas and Chris Armstrong.
Department of Defense
● Grant Reviewer, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (2023)
Beth served as a grant reviewer for one of the illnesses that she researches. The grant review panel she served on was part of the DOD’s Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program.
Media Interviews and Research Talks About Chronic Illness
Links to Media Interviews Featuring Beth:
● The New York Times
- Study of Patients With a Chronic Fatigue Condition May Offer Clues to Long Covid
● National Public Radio, Marketplace
- Long COVID can make work challenging, Accommodations can make a difference.
(Radio story aired nationally in Marketplace evening report. Separate but related article goes into more depth)
● The Atlantic
- Long COVID Has Forced a Reckoning for One of Medicine’s Most Neglected Diseases
● Harvard Business Review
- Long Covid at Work: A Manager’s Guide
- Beth co-authored HBR’s feature article of their Big Ideas Issue for 2024. It’s offers a framework for how managers and organizations can support employees with chronic illness, including a menu of accommodations based on the most common symptoms of Long COVID and associated illnesses, such as ME/CFS and POTS.
● IdeaCast, Harvard Business Review Podcast
- The Hidden Burden of Long Covid and What Companies Can Do
● Medscape
- Why Are Women More Likely To Get Long COVID?
- Biological Sex Differences: Key to Understanding Long COVID?
● STAT News
- Medicine struggles to define chronic Lyme. Long Covid has only made it harder
- Inside a push to create an NIH office for post-infection chronic illness
● Nature
- Long COVID still has no cure — so these patients are turning to research
● Yale School of Medicine Magazine
- Will Long COVID Research Provide Answers for Poorly Understood Diseases Like ME/CFS?
- Long COVID, ME/CFS and the Importance of Studying Infection-Associated Illnesses
● The Obama Foundation
- Yes We Can: Taking Up The Baton 15 Years Later
● Well & Good
- Is Long COVID the Match That Will Finally Light a Fire Under Research Into Women’s Reproductive Health?
● MedPage Today
- Long COVID and ME/CFS
● Think Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations
- Long COVID May Catalyze New Treatments for Chronic Pain and Fatig
Select Research Talks and Presentations
● The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)
Beth spoke at the Symposium on Examining the Working Definition for Long COVID. Her talk was on reproductive health conditions, connective tissue disorders, and spinal conditions in Long COVID.
● The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Beth gave three talks at the NIH’s first ever research webinar on Less Studied Pathologies in ME/CFS, a 4-hour webinar she also co-organized and moderated. Beth served as chair of the NIH subgroup on ME/CFS Less Studied Pathologies. Beth’s research talks were titled: “Less Studied Pathologies: Overview, Prevalence and Comorbidities, and Inclusion in Research,” in which had a subfocus on connective tissue and spinal disorders in ME/CFS; “Female Reproductive Health in ME/CFS,” and “Closing Remarks: Webinar Summary and Next Steps for the Field” in which she outlined key outstanding questions and research priorities.
● Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Beth has given multiple talks, including a 1-hour med ed talk on overlapping pathologies in infection-associated chronic illnesses to the physicians at MIT Medical. (Physicians who attended received a continuing medical education credit.)
● UMass Chan Medical School
Beth gave a talk on comorbidity and less studied pathologies in infection-associated chronic illnesses at the Symposium on Infection-Associated Chronic Illnesses within the annual conference on Multiple Sclerosis.
● Long COVID and Post-Viral Syndromes ECHO - a joint initiative of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The University of Utah, and the Bateman Horne Center
● Beth gave a 1-hour med ed ECHO series talk on a comprehensive approach to complex chronic illnesses that incorporates common comorbidities and less studied pathologies of Long COVID, ME/CFS, and associated illnesses. Clinicians who attended received a continuing medical education credit.
● Harvard University
Beth has given multiple 1-hour and shorter research talks.
● Stanford University
Stanford ME/CFS conference. Beth gave two lightning talks (2023 & 2024) on her and the lab’s current and planned research.
Previously, Beth was a Senior Researcher at Harvard University. At Harvard, she led environmental health research projects, studying the use of chemicals of concern in consumer products as well as chemical and health policies.
Beth was also previously a researcher at Harvard Business School focusing on business and social impact. While at HBS, she co-created Harvard’s first cross-discipline symposium series on business and the public good.
In addition to research, Beth has led health policy and ESG strategy initiatives in the private and public sectors. She’s built projects to improve the health and safety of food, consumer products, and indoor environments for a variety of institutions in tech, sustainability, food, and retail. She’s designed new policies and KPIs on health, ingredients, additives, nutrition, and environmental health, including building projects to remove and replace ingredients of concern in thousands of products internationally.
Beth is deeply interested in advancing comprehensive healthcare for patients with complex chronic illnesses. She is also captivated by the intersection of environmental health and chronic illness, such as mechanisms through which environmental exposures including to chemicals of concern and mold impact disease trajectories, symptomotology, and etiopathogenesis.
Beth earned a master’s degree (MPP) from Harvard University's Kennedy School where she researched and studied health policy and environmental health. She also took significant coursework at Harvard Business School. She holds an honors Bachelor of Science from NYU, where she graduated magna cum laude and received scholastic achievement awards.
Previous Work and Education