The government has announced £4.7 million of funding for a genomics study looking at Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also known as ME.

ME/CFS affects hundreds of thousands of people nationwide. ME/CFS causes debilitating fatigue, sleep difficulties and cognitive impairment. Around a quarter of those diagnosed are severely affected, leaving them housebound or unable to work.

The study will enable the SequenceME programme to sequence the genomes of up to 6,000 ME/CFS patients, generating a world-first high-resolution genetic map of the illness.

It is hoped the work could unlock the biological causes of the condition for the first time ever and unlock better diagnostics and new treatments.

The SequenceME programme brings together the University of Edinburgh, Action for ME, the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) and Oxford Nanopore Technologies.

Dr Zubir Ahmed, Health Innovation and Safety Minister, said: "For too long, people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome have faced a condition that is poorly understood, difficult to diagnose and without effective treatments.

"This government is determined to change that, and today’s investment is an historic breakthrough in doing so. British scientists are leading the world in genomic research, and this investment puts them at the cutting edge of a challenge that affects hundreds of thousands of people in this country.

"Through this world-first genomics study, we are giving scientists the tools they need to understand the biological causes of this illness - laying the groundwork for better diagnostics and new treatments that hundreds of thousands of patients deserve."