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£5K To Go! Invest in ME Research B-Cell/Rituximab Fund

Jo Best

Senior Member
Messages
1,032
£5k to go to reach £520k funding target for Invest in ME Research Rituximab Fund.
http://www.investinme.org/ce-news-1706-05.shtml

This includes funding the research on B-cells led by Dr. Jo Cambridge at UCL.


The UK text code below links with this JustGiving page, where you can donate from any country: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ritux4meuk



Extra info:

This work has been developing with close collaboration between UCL, UEA, Quadram Institute Biosceinces(formerly IFR), Oxford University and the Norwegian researchers at Haukeland in Bergen, Norway. The latter will visit again in the autumn; their visit in January prompted an update on the Invest in ME Research Centre of Excellence projects by regional BBC Look East.

A Senior Research Associate post has been advertised to assist with clinical trials.

Those links are on the last update here.

Published to date by the UK team:

Extended B cell phenotype in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: a cross-sectional study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cei.12749/abstract (February 2016)

A Role for the Intestinal Microbiota and Virome in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)? http://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/5/6/55 (June 2016)

Chronic fatigue syndrome and the immune system: Where are we now?: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28410877 (April 2017)
 

Jo Best

Senior Member
Messages
1,032
Hi @Demepivo,

I only know that they plan to start the trial by the end of 2018 at Norwich Research Park.

A lot of work and careful preparation is underway to enable the best possible outcomes for all patients from a UK clinical trial. A Senior Research Associate post to assist with the trial design has been advertised (closing date for applications 4th July 2017) . Lab work aiming to be able to identify likely responders to rituximab has been progressing in UK since the first patient samples were taken in 2014. The Haukeland team intend to visit the UK team again this autumn, when the Norwegian Phase III trial data will be unblinded, but not published until 2018.
 

Battery Muncher

Senior Member
Messages
620
Thanks for this thread Jo. Donated £20 + £5 Gift Aid anonymously :) Should show up in 24 hrs.

After the communities' magnificent efforts in funding David Tuller, it would be great if we can get this funded by the end of August! That way we might be ready to go by the time Fluge and Mella publish their results.

Wonder if it would be good to re-title this thread:

"£5K To Go! Invest in ME Research B-Cell/Rituximab Fund"

Or similar, so that people know this target is in close reach/ achievable soon!
 

Jo Best

Senior Member
Messages
1,032
Thanks @Battery Muncher :) and for your comment with the donation.

Good idea to change the title - done!

Yes, it would also be good to get the £5k raised asap as funds will be needed for next phases of the work.

I was thinking today how different the research landscape looks from when I first became aware of it through social media in 2010, at the time that IiME Research published their proposal for a UK Centre of Excellence.

Seven years seems a long time, but going from decades of a few small, mostly one-off biomedical studies, to having a strategic programme of world-class translational biomedical research well underway, including the first UK clinical trial to address the underlying disease process, is quite astonishing progress within the timeframe.