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Square One: WPI closed down; XRx blog, 10/2/11

RustyJ

Contaminated Cell Line 'RustyJ'
Messages
1,200
Location
Mackay, Aust
I think this forum just went over half an hour without a single post. Never seen that before. Sigh.
 

redo

Senior Member
Messages
874
Anyone who can sum up the blog post in a couple of sentences? I don't have the health to read so much. The short story:
- WPI will not be doing XMRV research no more, or not retroviral reserach at all? If yes, to the first or latter, what's the reason? Because of money or what?
 

Sam Carter

Guest
Messages
435
Anyone who can sum up the blog post in a couple of sentences? I don't have the health to read so much. The short story:
- WPI will not be doing XMRV research no more, or not retroviral reserach at all? If yes, to the first or latter, what's the reason? Because of money or what?

The second sentence from the blog really covers it all, Redo:

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The entire WPI research program has been closed by the institute's CEO, and the facility is now locked down. It's former principle investigator, Dr. Judy Mikovits, is in active discussions concerning institutions to which she may move to continue her grant-funded research.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

So, no more WPI but Dr Mikovits may continue her research elsewhere.

ETA: as for the why, these paras seem to capture it:

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
When the results of the BWG were uncoded and revealed to all nine labs (but not yet made public), in early August, WPI was left in a bad place. Dr. Mikovits says that at that time she asked WPI management to stop offering the XMRV test at VIP Dx. But the testing was not stopped. Why?

Then, when the BWG results were finally made public on September 22, Dr. Mikovits was quoted as saying, "VIPdx lab will NOT continue XMRV-testing because it hasn't been shown to be reproducible in [the] BloodWorkingGroup". Shortly after she said this, cooperation between the two labs ceased completely and the research lab was closed. Why?
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

I take this to mean that are now personal differences between Dr Mikovits, Annette Whittemore and Dr. Lombardi.
 

redo

Senior Member
Messages
874
The second sentence from the blog really covers it all, Redo:

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The entire WPI research program has been closed by the institute's CEO, and the facility is now locked down. It's former principle investigator, Dr. Judy Mikovits, is in active discussions concerning institutions to which she may move to continue her grant-funded research.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

So, no more WPI but Dr Mikovits may continue her research elsewhere.

Is the insititue's CEO Annette Whittemore? If not, who is the CEO.

Why is it shut down? Will this meen that the WPI will cease to exist, or that Anette Whittemore & Co will move on to other research fields?
 
Messages
13,774
I don't think we really know what's going on yet. It seems like we're only getting some of one side of the story.

What a mess this has been. I wonder if we'll ever get the full story?

If I had the energy, I'd try to turn it into a movie.
 

Firestormm

Senior Member
Messages
5,055
Location
Cornwall England
The second sentence from the blog really covers it all, Redo:

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The entire WPI research program has been closed by the institute's CEO, and the facility is now locked down. It's former principle investigator, Dr. Judy Mikovits, is in active discussions concerning institutions to which she may move to continue her grant-funded research.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

So, no more WPI but Dr Mikovits may continue her research elsewhere.

I would say: no more WPI research facility Sam. The WPI (minus the research facility) may well continue in some way, shape or form. More news to follow I dare say.

I do wish the WPI would make these statements and not leave it to Dr Jamie.
 

redo

Senior Member
Messages
874
Does the first post give an answer to why it's shut down? Does it have anything to do with the BWG stuff? (I haven't got the health to read through the whole thing).
 

Sam Carter

Guest
Messages
435
Does the first post give an answer to why it's shut down? Does it have anything to do with the BWG stuff? (I haven't got the health to read through the whole thing).

Hi Redo,

I think these are the key points from Dr. Deckoff-Jones's blog-post (some of them being, of course, her own personal opinion):

  • the entire WPI research program has been closed
  • Dr. Mikovits is negotiating with other institutions so she can continue her work and still believes her original research is correct and cannot be explained by contamination
  • all XMRV/HGRV testing performed by VIP Dx is null and void
  • VIP Dx tests were not validated against WPI methods or performed with appropriate controls
  • the BWG specimens were run in both the WPI research lab and the VIP Dx clinical lab but cooperation between the two labs was troubled
  • the relationship between the WPI lab and VIP Dx broke down entirely (and the WPI lab closed) shortly after Dr Mikovits said "VIPdx lab will NOT continue XMRV-testing because it hasn't been shown to be reproducible in [the] Blood Working Group"
  • Annette Whittemore overstated the effectiveness of the treatments being offered at the WPI clinic
  • the WPI is now an obstacle to progress

I'm happy to alter this if I've misread / misinterpreted things.

Sam
 

redo

Senior Member
Messages
874
Thanks for the short story. About the last thing. JDJ's opinion that "WPI is now an obstacle to progress", does it say why she thinks that? If the WPI is closed they aren't an obstacle, they would be more of a not team player, but obstacle. Does the blog post give any indication why she chooses those words?
 

Sam Carter

Guest
Messages
435
Thanks for the short story. About the last thing. JDJ's opinion that "WPI is now an obstacle to progress", does it say why she thinks that? If the WPI is closed they aren't an obstacle, they would be more of a not team player, but obstacle. Does the blog post give any indication why she chooses those words?

Hi Redo,

The blog-post doesn't specifically clarify why the WPI would be an obstacle to progress but, I would guess, the shutting down of the research lab would be one obvious reason.

It seems that Dr. Deckoff-Jones and Dr. Mikovits remain friends but have both fallen out with Annette Whittemore and Dr. Lombardi.

I hope we can hear directly from all parties soon.

Sam
 

jace

Off the fence
Messages
856
Location
England
We have so far heard one side of the many-sided (I have no doubt) story. Dr Jamie also said of the WPI
They were, and are, in over their heads. They started with the best of intentions. We will always owe them a debt of gratitude for the spark of genius and the increased awareness they have brought to our disease. But now, the work needs to be done by someone with the resources to do it right.

I just hope the untangling of connections can be done quickly and cleanly.
 

Daffodil

Senior Member
Messages
5,875
we have a good idea that tenofovir works, from deckoff-jones and dr. snyderman....and azt too. so that leaves us with 2 drugs to take, along with treating co-infections. as i said before, my NK cell function rose from 2 to 60 on ARV's. that has to mean something.

realistically, it will be 3 to 5 years before we have any more good news. very very scary for those who are at end stage.

dr. mikovits said last week she is 2 weeks from sequencing the other HGRV's.....what will become of these sequences? who will test drugs against them?

VIP Dx said they will have HGRV testing in 2 years...is this no longer the case?
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Hi, to everyone with lots of questions (and that includes me) we don't really know anything yet. We have one story from one person who knows more than we do, but we don't have the full story. This is very much a wait a bit and see event. Bye, Alex
 

Rrrr

Senior Member
Messages
1,591
Hi Redo,

I think these are the key points from Dr. Deckoff-Jones's blog-post (some of them being, of course, her own personal opinion):

  • the entire WPI research program has been closed
  • Dr. Mikovits is negotiating with other institutions so she can continue her work and still believes her original research is correct and cannot be explained by contamination
  • all XMRV/HGRV testing performed by VIP Dx is null and void
  • VIP Dx tests were not validated against WPI methods or performed with appropriate controls
  • the BWG specimens were run in both the WPI research lab and the VIP Dx clinical lab but cooperation between the two labs was troubled
  • the relationship between the WPI lab and VIP Dx broke down entirely (and the WPI lab closed) shortly after Dr Mikovits said "VIPdx lab will NOT continue XMRV-testing because it hasn't been shown to be reproducible in [the] Blood Working Group"
  • Annette Whittemore overstated the effectiveness of the treatments being offered at the WPI clinic
  • the WPI is now an obstacle to progress

I'm happy to alter this if I've misread / misinterpreted things.

Sam

this sounds like a good summary to me. accurate to the original blog dr jamie posted. thanks for the summary!