Posted by Cort Johnson Many researchers think the problems in the brain or central nervous system probably play a key role in ME/CFS. Some of the most interesting research in the past couple of years has focused on the brain and the Ottawa conference was no exception. At the conference we saw research findings begin to focus on specific areas
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Posted by Cort Johnson Montoya Calls for New Research Focus The Immune System! The ever-present, ever complex immune system – a place of so many hopes in CFS and such a tough nut to crack. In his opening address for the Infectious Pathogens section Dr. Montoya pointed out how inconsistent study results have made it difficult to get a handle
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Posted by Cort Johnson Ottawa Conference Reports III: The Most Expensive Disorder: Clauw on the Fibromyalgia and CFS-ness of Chronic Illness Clauw is a fascinating figure. Clauw comes from the fibromyalgia side but if you don’t have FM don’t think there’s not something here for you as well. Clauw believes a very large group of people with chronic illnesses
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Posted by Cort Johnson In Part II of the XMRV section of the conference we look at the Coffin/Mikovits presentations, Hanson’s update on her XMRV work and look at the recent XMRV research findings. The pMLVs Strike Out – Hanson Disavows Former Results “The sensitivity of the PCR assays used requires extreme caution in interpreting results Dr. Maureen Hanson” Background
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Posted by Cort Johnson Pt. IA: XMRV: the Big Test – the Blood Working Study (Taken From the Ottawa Conference/CFIDS Association Webinar) The Blood Working Group was a large group (25) made of federal officials from various agencies (CDC, NIH, FDA), the Red Cross, several laboratories including the WP, several Universities and put together just a month after the XMRV
ContinuePosted by Cort Johnson Quick hits from the IACFS/ME Ottawa Conference #IACFSME – on last day room is quite full. Immune session begins with 3 positive studies on #CFS fr. Australia (Bond), CDC and Lights (Utah) 21 hours ago CortJohnson Cort Johnson #IACFSME – brain blood flow study finds significantly reduced blood flows – anterior cingulate region may explain increased lactate in brain 19 hours
ContinuePosted by Cort Johnson Quick hits from the first two days of the Conference. Follow CortJohnson on Twitter tomorrow for more CortJohnson Cort Johnson #IACFS/ME – #Clauw reports #interstitial cytisus (allied with #CFS) will change name next year to reflect understanding about CNS origin 23 Sep CortJohnson Cort Johnson #IACFS/ME – #Clauw reports #interstitial cytisus research community acknowledges they were all wrong; its all the central nervous system. 23
ContinuePosted by Cort Johnson Quick hits from International ME/CFS Conference in Ottawa. Follow CortJohnson on Twitter tomorrow for more…. CortJohnson Cort Johnson #IACFSME – over the past year 2 NIH CFS heads, Vivian Pinn the head of the Office of Women;s Health, CDC CFS Chief and Wanda Jones have left 19 minutes ago CortJohnson Cort Johnson #IACFSME – Mangan’s retirement is a big loss
ContinuePosted by Cort Johnson (There were some formatting and grammatical errors in the first post; this is a revised submission – my apologies) It wasn’t surprising at all to see things get heated with Dr. Coffin and Dr. Mikovits both up at bat at the State of Knowledge Workshop. The moderator, Dr. Alter, handled his job with humor and flair.
ContinuePosted by Cort Johnson We’re going to try something new, live coverage of the workshop. Since this is last minute, we need volunteers to help cover the event. Let us know if you’d like to help with a comment here or via reply in the forum article that I’m posting. You can watch the event here or in the forums.
ContinuePosted by Cort Johnson Here’s a slightly ‘kludged’ transcript of Day one of the NIH ME/CFS State of Knowledge Workshop. Some off-topic chat posts have been removed for clarity, but no remaining lines of the transcript have been altered. NIH SoK Workshop Coverage (Day 1, 7 Apr 2011)
ContinuePosted by Cort Johnson The State of the Knowledge Workshop is here and it’s a good one. A hearty congratulations to Pat Fero, Mary Schweitzer, Ken Friedman, Dr. Jason, Dr. Klimas, Dr. Vernon and Dennis Mangan for what they’ve produced. The last NIH Workshop/Conference of this sort was the Neuroimmune Conference of eight years ago and was filled with NIH
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