Following approval by the MEA Ramsay Research Fund to provide just under £85,000 to fund a further two years work at the UK ME/CFS Biobank, there is now a vacancy for the newly created position of a Biobank Co-ordinator and Project Manager. The work will include the release of blood samples to researchers who want to make use of them.
More details on the job vacancy can be found here in the announcement from the Biobank team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine:
https://jobs.lshtm.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=MEPM-02
More details on the ME/CFS Biobank, which is located at the Royal Free Hospital
ME/CFS Biobank website:
www.lshtm.ac.uk/itd/crd/research/cure-me/ukmecfsbiobank/
Information from the ME/CFS Biobank poster presentation at the Research Collaborative conference in Newcastle:
The ME/CFS biobank now has over 25,000 samples/aliquots from over 500 participants. The three groups comprise of:
(a) people with ME/CFS (diagnosed by a physician and compliant with Fukuda and Canadian criteria and compliance available for four other criteria) including a cohort with severe ME/CFS and samples that are being collected longitudinally at 6 monthly intervals
(b) healthy controls
(c) a further cohort of people with multiple sclerosis.
The blood samples comprise of whole blood; serum, plasma, red blood cells, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), blood for RNA extraction.
Associated data available includes
(a) baseline standard laboratory tests to exclude other causes of fatigue
(b) detailed clinical data and symptom assessment
(c) demographic information
(e) standardised instruments of fatigue severity and functional impairment
The ME/CFS Biobank aims to open for the supply of samples to research groups in early 2016. Fees, which are currently being calculated, will be based on cost recovery only.
Researchers who wish to register an interest in sample supply should do so via: mecfsbiobank@LSHTM.ac.uk
Dr Charles Shepherd
Hon Medical Adviser, ME Association
Chairman, ME/CFS Biobank Steering Group
6 November 2015