Dr Ian Lipkin's $1.27m gut microbiome study - crowdfunding campaign - news and updates

SB_1108

SB_1108

Senior Member
Messages
315
S

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
vli said:
Is anyone here willing to hold for example events like this over a weekend to raise very respectable amounts? https://www.facebook.com/microbedis...2043766500/717326988336338/?type=1&permPage=1
Click to expand...

I was amazed at how much that event raised - it was basically just selling home-made cake and teas, and having a tombola/raffle, by the looks of it, and it raised $650.

I don't think that's the kind of thing that most PWME could manage, at least on their own, but it would be relatively easy for friends and relatives to do. If you've got a friend or rellie with lots of friends who'd turn out to support an event like that, it looks as though it can be really successful.
 
B

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
SB_1108 said:
Can we discuss anymore marketing ideas? Are there plans for the next few months? Does any one have any fresh ideas?
Click to expand...
Hi SB, there isn't a shortage of ideas, or plans, within the team, but we have a lack of person-power. At the moment almost the entire team is out of action, due to health or other commitments. I suppose that's one of the dangers of a long-term project within the ME community.

EDIT: see my next post for further info...
 
Last edited:
B

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
I was very tired yesterday and I should have added the following to my earlier post..

Despite the team struggling with health, the project continues to grow; donations are coming in at a regular pace; the public continue to support the project with imaginative projects; we have plans in the pipeline; Columbia are working on promising projects behind the scenes; and we currently have some exciting plans that we will implement as soon as health permits. Currently our Facebook page is growing fast and has more than 2000 'likes', with lots of interest in our posts, and we have another 500 followers on Twitter, also steadily growing.

We have three months to go and there is potential to raise a significant amount in that time. We hope to attract more publicity, and we're already growing organically at a good pace on Facebook etc. We also hope that there might be some exciting developments during the next three months following on from Columbia's activities behind the scenes.
 
S

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Pardon my crossposting!

The Microbe Discovery Project said:
Five Dollar Challenge graphic JPEG 600.jpg


Five Dollar Bill image by Phil Dokas on Flickr

Since we started crowdfunding for Dr Ian Lipkin's ambitious and exciting study of the gut microbiome in ME/CFS, we’ve raised over $140,000.

There’ve been over 750 donations, including several individual whoppers of tens of thousands of dollars.

Donors have raised money by holding garden fetes, selling books, doing the ice-bucket challenge (brrr!), you name it: all in the interests of research.

But we know there’s so much more support out there, and we want the researchers to see it!

However much we finally raise, we want Dr Lipkin, Dr Hornig, and the whole research team to know how much our community supports them.

We want to encourage them and show them our appreciation by racking up the number of donations, and all it takes is $5!

So please join our Five Dollar Challenge and help us reach our target 100 donations to the Microbe Discovery Project by 9 November.

Let’s show the Columbia researchers that our community is grateful for their involvement in our neglected disease.

During the donation process, it’s possible to leave a comment and you might like to write a message there for Dr Lipkin and his co-workers.

We’d also love it if you posted here to say that you’ve donated and to share your message with us.

Let’s start donating those five dollars and sending our messages of support!
Click to expand...

The main thread for the Five Dollar Challenge is here.

Please post on that thread to say that you've donated and to copy your donation comment of support.

Who will be the first? :)
 

Attachments

  • Five Dollar Challenge graphic JPEG 300.jpg
    Five Dollar Challenge graphic JPEG 300.jpg
    69.3 KB · Views: 12
Last edited:
B

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
small - Guts Man full text JPEG.jpg

The Microbe Discovery Project team said:
Message from microbediscovery! We have TWO MONTHS TO GO!

Get your donations in - why not take on our $5 challenge to register your support for the researchers and Columbia University! or give whatever you can afford. Having great researchers involved in the field of ME/CFS is all too rare. The work these researchers are doing is very exciting, they know how to do research that stands up to critique and they have excellent research backgrounds. What they are doing right now and want to do has the ability to move things forward and we need to encourage them and keep them going!

With respect to Drs Lipkin and Hornig, if we ever wanted researchers to investigate, be detectives or think outside the box in this illness, we finally have it! They may well find information and clues that could explain key things about symptoms, why people feel they way they do and what is going wrong in the body! With private funding they are working through projects right now on the metabolome, proteome, further pathogen searches in white blood cells, gene expression studies and functional immunology with the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases. This is a large body of work and a serious programme of study into ME/CFS.

They don't have the funding they need for their microbiome work.

There is some hype around microbiome - however in the context of this research and the symptoms people experience we need to get this research on the go! Taking into account what we already know about ME/CFS and what is being found in the gut microbiome in other illnesses. Considering what is known now about gut brain axis action, the relationships that are being found with the gut and immune system and the gut and metabolism, it is very clear our gut microbiome needs thoroughly looked into!

Metabolomics is the study of small chemicals in tissue or the blood. These include molecules such as amino acids and hormones. The blood metabolome includes many molecules made by the gut microbiome, as a lot of small molecules cross the gut wall to the blood. Dr Lipkin has stated about the gut microbiome, “I think it produces compounds which traffic through the body or into the brain and cause all sorts of curious diseases”.

He has stated that "infection can lead to changes in the microbiome, which could influence the illness and that the microbiome also has the capacity to turn on and turn off the immune system. So the microbiome could be playing a role in CFS/ME in several different ways."

Our sincere thanks to everyone that has contributed and supported so far!

Donate here:
https://giving.columbia.edu/giveonline/?schoolstyle=5881&alloc=21677

Here is our $5 challenge:
www.microbediscovery.org/blog/2014/10/28/five-dollar-challenge-send-100-messages-support-dr-lipkin-microbiome-team-9-nov/

Read about the project here:
www.microbediscovery.org
Click to expand...

small - Guts Man 20% text JPEG.jpg

Image(s) credit: www.canstock.com
 
B

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
The Microbe Discovery Project team said:
Great news everyone!

Since our Five Dollar Challenge started at the weekend, we've had 32 extra donations for Dr Lipkin's research! :balloons: :balloons: :balloons:

This is a great response!
Thanks so much everyone! We're so pleased with the response.

But please keep the donations coming!
Don't forget that our goal is 100 extra donations by 9th Nov!
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back