Blood Working Group Revealed

[Cort]

At the CFSAC meeting, the NHLBI Program Director reported that the BWG was in Phase 2, the optimal preparation of a sample. She said she expected results from this phase in early November.

This is important I think because it is in sample preparation that a) either contamination occurs or b) storage and preparation issues show up. This makes me think they will determine whether XMRV is there or not at this step. It seems to me to be the core step in the process; either XMRV goes on :victory: or it doesn't.

 

[pictureofhealth]

Re Blood working group phase 2 - "She said she expected results from this phase in early November."

That's round about now isn't it????

 

[pictureofhealth]

Correspondence with our two main retrovirologists (McClure and Bishop) has revealed that neither is currently doing any studies on XMRV and ME.

Bishop has just been recruiting for a new XMRV study due to start in the UK soon. It doesn't specifically say that it will look at XMRV in ME patients, just 'certain patient groups' (or words to that effect).

I'm pretty sure they were intending to use the study to see if there is a 'link between XMRV and human disease', but how they can do that if they haven't actually admitted to being able to find XMRV in the UK yet, I'm not sure. Perhaps they are using some kind of prostate cancer XMRV clone, or whatever bizarre kind of lab engineered creation they can come up with. I have to admit, I just don't get any of this.

 

[ukxmrv]

Kermit, when was this? The Bishop part anyway and have you actually seen the correspondance. My sources tell a different story and I am just checking.
"Correspondence with our two main retrovirologists (McClure and Bishop) has revealed that neither is currently doing any studies on XMRV and ME. Myra McClure even stated that she does not intend on doing any more work on it at all. Short sighted comes to mind"

 

[urbantravels]

Wasn't it Myra McClure who said she wasn't going to work on XMRV or ME any more, right *before* she was seen becoming the principal spokescritter for the contamination gang?

I think there's a little confusion here. Verifiable accuracy is important.

 

[pictureofhealth]

Correspondence with our two main retrovirologists (McClure and Bishop) has revealed that neither is currently doing any studies on XMRV and ME. Myra McClure even stated that she does not intend on doing any more work on it at all. Short sighted comes to mind.

This comment is off topic for the US Blood Working Group, but wanted to respond to Kermit's post above ..

Hi Kermit - here is a link to a previous PR thread with info on Dr Bishop's new proposed UK XMRV study.

This study aims to examine a possible - 'link between XMRV and human disease'. How they can do this if they haven't actually found XMRV yet in the UK I really don't know! (It also doesn't say that they will be looking at ME/CFS patients specifically - maybe it will just be a prostate cancer study?)

http://www.forums.aboutmecfs.org/showthread.php?7959-New-UK-research-project-info...-Dr.-Kate-Bishop

The recruiting deadline for the project is Nov 30, but it doesn't say when the study itself is due to start.

Also interesting, pointed out by a poster on a UK forum, is that this particular study has a 'BSL3' notice, indicating that the lab director clearly thinks some serious pathogens are afoot - not something that would be necessary, one might think, if XMRV wasn't thought to be there ...

 

[RivkaRivka]

is there anything new with the blood working group?

 

[Sasha]

is there anything new with the blood working group?

Hi Rivka - there's been a lot of discussion about that on this thread. The short answer is "no"! People are upset because it's overdue and we don't know why.