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Solve MECFS announces grant recipients

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
http://solvecfs.org/2016-ramsay-award-program-results/

Here is an exerpt from Dr Nahle:

We are thrilled to support the work of these talented scientists from around the world through the 2016 Ramsay Award Program. This has been a competitive process, meaning that we had more applications for funding than we were able to fulfill, and so a rigorous process was used to determine those who would be funded. All five teams are committed to ME/CFS research. Importantly, they are exploring diverse promising areas including autoimmunity, natural killer (NK) cell function, mitochondrial myopathies, metabolic profiling, viral infection, bioenergetics heath index characterization, low grade inflammation, immune dysfunction, diagnostic testing, and advanced brain imaging—to name a few.

There is more from the Solve CEO Carol Head at the link above.

Team 1:
Advanced Non-Invasive Analysis in ME/CFS Diagnosis and Treatment Decisions - Jarred Younger University of Alabama in Birmingham
Link to the abstract

Team 2:
Metabolic Analysis of B-Cell Maturation in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
A project summary as written by Geraldine Cambridge (UK) Fane Mensah (UK) and @ChrisArmstrong (Australia)
Link to the abstract

Team 3
The Bioenergetic Health Index of NK Cells as a Diagnostic Tool for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
A project summary as written by Isabel Barao-Silvestre (University of Nevada in Reno), Ruben Dagda (Reno) and Victor Usmar (Alabama)
Link to the abstract

Team 4
Autoimmune Signature in CFS/ME
A project summary as written by Carmen Scheibenbogen and Madlen Lobel (Charity University in Berlin Germany)
Link to the abstract

Team 5
HHV-6 Mediated Mitochondrial Modulation and Its Association to ME/CFS
A project summary as written by Bhupesh Prusty ( Julius Maximilian University of Wurzburg, Germany)
LInk to the abstract
 
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Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
I think this is an exciting research program and look forward to read each of their publications-with the hope we can have discoveries, breakthroughs that can advance the field rapidly.

Many thanks to Solve CFS, the Ramsey fund, the donors and everyone involved in making these researches possible.
 

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
Thanks @Kati

Things seem to be going in a positive direction although baby steps.

About time!
Those are seed grants. They each have better chances of getting NIH grants. It's very positive in my opinion. They represent 5 different directions of research and they all join in all at the same time.

Also many of them have young investigators. And a new to the field investigator (#5)
 

Cheesus

Senior Member
Messages
1,292
Location
UK
Also many of them have young investigators. And a new to the field investigator (#5)

I think our fortunes are changing with scientific investigators. People with ambition and initiative may see ME as a fresh challenge; terra nova for the intrepid scientific explorers. I can see how that would be very attractive. It is probably how we bag the likes of Lipkin.
 

Jo Best

Senior Member
Messages
1,032
The UK team is the team doing the B cell studies preliminary to the UK rituxumab trial, instigated and funded by Invest in ME Research. Chris Armstrong was at the IiMER Biomedical Research into ME Colloquium in June, along with Zaher Nahle of Solve ME/CFS. Fane Mensah is the PhD student working with Dr. Jo (Geraldine) Cambridge and tweeted from the IiMER conference events his enthusiasm for what Chris is doing. Solve ME/CFS also awarded Fane Mensah a travel grant to attend IACFS. Great collaborations building from the international conference events.
ETA link to UK rituximab research news page, for background to the work being done by the UCL team and to add this is also facilitated by the European ME Research formed in 2015, the 'rituximab researchers' are working together, from Norway, UK, Germany, Spain, Sweden.
http://www.ukrituximabtrial.org/IIMEUKRT News.htm
 

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Horizon

Senior Member
Messages
239
These sound great, I am sure they are small grants but does anyone know how much these projects are getting? Will these be recognized by CDC and other agencies or they are too small and just a means to be replicated and generate interest?
 
These sound great, I am sure they are small grants but does anyone know how much these projects are getting? Will these be recognized by CDC and other agencies or they are too small and just a means to be replicated and generate interest?
I haven't seen the value of the awards revealed anywhere but Carol Head says
Second, the Ramsay Award Program, in its first year, is a core element in our support of the research of others. We understand that there are many researchers, from many fields of study, who are interested in exploring ME/CFS. The Ramsay Award Program offers seed grants to support the 12-month projects deemed most promising in moving the field of ME/CFS research forward.
These small grants are “proof of concept” investigations and fund small projects that can lead to much larger grants and additional in-depth exploration. Given the fundamental lack of understanding of the root cause(s) of ME/CFS, exploration of a widely dispersed set of potential causes will help ME/CFS come into focus.
which is probably the closest I can get to answer your questions - quote from this page http://solvecfs.org/wp-content/uplo...tter-on-2016-Ramsay-Award-Program-Winners.pdf
 

RL_sparky

Senior Member
Messages
379
Location
California
These sound great, I am sure they are small grants but does anyone know how much these projects are getting? Will these be recognized by CDC and other agencies or they are too small and just a means to be replicated and generate interest?

The Solve people are having a webinar with there Research Director, Dr. Zaher Nahle next week on the 15th. You can register here at : http://solvecfs.org/2016-webinar-series There accepting questions if you want to ask anything.
 

Emily Taylor

Senior Member
Messages
149
Location
Los Angeles, CA
They were planned to be $100,000 or less. I've no idea whether anyone went over the limit.

That's correct, Dolphin! The total grant award was $160,000.

If you have questions about the details of the research awards, I definitely recommend you e-mail them for the webinar next week. You can e-mail edavie@solvecfs.org with your questions. Just make sure to put "webinar question" clearly so we'll get it to Dr. Nahle with the other questions.
 

Emily Taylor

Senior Member
Messages
149
Location
Los Angeles, CA
That's correct, Dolphin! The total grant award was $160,000.

If you have questions about the details of the research awards, I definitely recommend you e-mail them for the webinar next week. You can e-mail edavie@solvecfs.org with your questions. Just make sure to put "webinar question" clearly so we'll get it to Dr. Nahle with the other questions.


Oh! I also forgot to mention that these grants are for one year and there is the possibility of renewal at the end of one year.
 
Messages
2,391
Location
UK
And none for the UK, which is very good news given the quality of ME research we typically produce.
That correlation may not be accidental.

Edit: As later pointed out, Team 2 is in fact part UK. Nice to see therefore that the UK was not excluded. And of course that so many good projects are being funded.
 
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