Jemal
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,031
There is a lengthy article on the NCI website about their recent research into the origin of XMRV. This is the conclusion:
Also, I think this is a nice quote:
Lots more content:
http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin/061411/page5
"The XMRV story is a cautionary tale about contamination," said Dr. Pathak. "And as our technology becomes ever more sensitive [for detecting the presence of mouse and viral DNA in patient samples] this will become an even bigger concern."
The XMRV story is also an interesting story of how science happens. Although Drs. Pathak and Coffin were each aware that the other was chasing down a different XMRV-like virus, they never imagined that the viruses would be the two parents of XMRV.
Good fortune played a role as well. As Dr. Le Grice noted, it is conceivable that the two labs might have discovered the same mouse virus rather than both parents, delaying their progress.
On December 17, when Dr. Coffin made the discovery, Dr. Pathak was too busy racing around to even respond to the e-mail until after he had boarded a plane. If Dr. Pathak had received the news a few days earlier, he might have postponed a 2-week vacation to a place without Internet access.
As it happened, he had a wonderful trip. And in the final moments before the flight, he managed to fire off a short reply to Dr. Coffin: "That's awesome!!"
Also, I think this is a nice quote:
The new reports in Science "are probably not the final word [on XMRV and these diseases], but they are definitive on where we stand at the moment," said Dr. Goff.
Lots more content:
http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin/061411/page5