September 2026 - Charles E. Holman Foundation

Marianne Middelveen Nominated for Full Membership in Sigma Xi

Marianne Middelveen, Canadian microbiologist and author of nearly 20 scientific studies on Morgellons was nominated for full membership to the prestigious Sigma Xi , The Scientific Research Honor Society. The society is devoted to the Promotion of Research in Science. On behalf of the Charles E. Holman Morgellons Disease Foundation and the entire Morgellons community, I’d like to congratulate Ms Middelveen on this major achievement!

Marianne Middelveen is a microbiologist from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She received post-graduate degrees in Microbial and Biochemical Science and in Environmental Science from Georgia State University and University of Calgary, respectively. She has worked as a researcher in the fields of medical mycologyand bacteriology at the Amazon Center for Research and Control of Tropical Diseases, and at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Central University, both in Venezuela; at Georgia State University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia; and at the University of Calgary. She became interested in Lyme disease after discovering she had the disease in 2011. As a volunteer, she has been involved in research related to Lyme disease and Morgellons disease. To date she has been a contributing author on nearly 20 peer-reviewed papers concerning Morgellons disease and Lyme disease, many of which presented ground-breaking research.

Ms Middelveen and her colleagues managed to identify the pathogens associated with Morgellons: Borrelia spirochetes, Treponema denticola, Bartonella henslae, Helicobacter pylori and Rickettsiae. She was also the first to determine that Morgellons shed debris is produced by our body’s own keratinocytes and fibroblasts and is composed of human proteins, collagen and keratin. Ms Middelveen went on to research how Morgellons fibers get their color. She discovered the blue fibers get their color from melanin, another human protein in the skin. She hypothesizes that the red fibers could get their color from pheomelanin and plans to continue studying the color’s origin.

The Morgellons community is grateful for the research progress and for scientific validation of Morgellons as an infection rather than a delusion. Thank you Marianne!

Living With Morgellons and Medical Dismissal with Christine Daley, PhD

Christine Daley, PhD was a guest on “What the Morgs” podcast with host Britt Girvan.

As some of you are aware, Medical Anthropologist, Mixed Methodologist Professor Chris Daley and her students at Lehigh University have taken interest in Morgellons as a contested illness and marginalized community and are working diligently on an academic book titled “Living With Morgellons and Medical Dismissal” with the goal of improving health equity.

The Charles E. Holman Morgellons Disease Foundation helped to facilitate nearly 100 Morgellons interviews with patients, scientists and clinicians for the Lehigh University team. The book will describe the daily lived experience of Morgellons patients and the trauma of dismissal and gaslighting by the medical community. The book will be published by Routledge, a highly esteemed publisher of professional and academic books.

Dr. Daley and her team are still seeking more interviews with anyone who falls into any of these categories. If you fit any of these categories, and are willing to interview, please send an email to ResearchMorgellons@gmail.com. All of your personal information will be kept confidential by Dr. Daley and her team so your name would never be used publicly. They’re seeking interviews in these categories so that Morgellons won’t be misinterpreted to affect only middle aged white females in the U.S.

International Morgellons Patients (anyone with Morgellons who lives outside of the USA)
Morgellons Patients of Color
Male Morgellons patients
Clinicians who treat Morgellons who haven’t already interviewed.

Dr. Daley recently shared her viewpoint on the CDC paper.

You can follow Dr. Daley’s project on Substack.

Dr. Raphael Stricker on Chronic Lyme, Morgellons & the Fight for Better Care

Raphael Stricker, MD was interviewed about Morgellons on “What the Morgs” podcast with host, Britt Girvan. In this podcast he discusses the misconceptions about Morgellons and the barriers that keep Morgellons patients misdiagnosed and desperate for medical care.

Trained at Columbia University in New York, Dr. Stricker is a Medical Doctor with a specialty in Internal Medicine. He has additional training in Hematology, Oncology, Immunology and Immunotherapy. With over 30 years experience, Dr Stricker is Medical Director of Union Square Medical Associates in San Francisco, CA where he treats Morgellons and other tick-borne illnesses. Link to his website: https://usmamed.com/

Dr. Stricker is a pioneer in the Lyme/Morgellons community as evidenced by his over 200 publications on these topics in the medical literature. He is a past president of ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Disease Society) and was among the first to take Morgellons symptoms seriously and evaluate and treat the underlying infections. He was also the first to publish on Morgellons and has continued researching Morgellons for over 20 years. Dr. Stricker and his colleague Melissa Fesler, DNP are among clinicians with the most experience in treating Morgellons patients and the most interest in furthering scientific research to better understand Morgellons disease.

We love Dr. Stricker for his many contributions to the medical literature, his vast knowledge of the literature, his extensive vocabulary, his amazing sense of humor, and of course his commitment to Morgellons Disease Research. When it comes to treatment of Morgellons and other tick-born illnesses, Dr. Stricker is a man with a plan.

The Charles E. Holman Foundation