People interested in following the money in ME/CFS research should watch a videocast later today of a discussion being held on the US Government's latest federally-funded ME/CFS research initiative.
Dr Vicky Whittemore, a programme director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, will be seeking concept clearance for the initiative from the Institute's advisory council. It will be a day-long meeting but the section on ME/CFS is due to start at 2pm EDT (7pm UK). The item is scheduled for discussion for 30 minutes before the public part of the meeting is closed.
The videocast website is http://videocast.nih.gov/
Agenda for today's meeting: www.ninds.nih.gov/find_people/nands/council_agenda_may_2016.htm
A National Institutes of Health press release about this latest US research initiative can be found by clicking on the following link: www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-takes-action-bolster-research-myalgic-encephalomyelitis/chronic-fatigue-syndrome
One of the aims of this group apparently is to explore how new technologies might be of use in research into ME/cfs. I think this is a great idea. I wonder also though if it could be valuable to re explore some of the basic research findings from the 1980’s which appear to have fallen by the wayside. For eg, a decade or so ago one scientist (? in Australia) found that red blood cells in some ME/cfs patients could be misshapen. If this is the case, there are numerous avenues to explore as to why this might be so. Is this phenomenon behind the severe bodywide pain some patients experience for eg? Also many patients report discomfort in the spleen area, which might support the idea of mass white cell apoptosis (death) already documented in the research literature to date. What is damaging or killing off these cells? Could the lymphatic system be explored in more depth? Is there a place for the humble research lab microscope to make a come back in the midst of all our latest high tech explorations?