Amy Proal is an American microbiologist who studies the effects of bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens on human health at the molecular level.
[5] Proal's decision to pursue a career in microbiology was motivated by personal experience with severe and repeated infections as a young child and later during her undergraduate studies when she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
[9] She is one of the founding members and current president/chief scientific officer of PolyBio Research Foundation, a 501(c)3 dedicated to investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying infection-associated chronic illnesses including ME/CFS, Lyme disease, and more recently Long COVID, as well as their effect on immunity, human metabolism, and inflammatory response.
An idea inspired from her personal experience with ME/CFS and severe infections during the early stages of childhood, Proal began to explore pathogenesis as a driver of autoimmunity.
One of the chapters she wrote in the book titled "Infection and Autoimmunity"[12] states that intracellular microbes tamper with key metabolic pathways by gradually dysregulating gene expression.