Kerr pulling out of XMRV research

[Esther12]

Invest in ME to fund WPI study of XMRV in UK/European patients
March 5, 2010


Mar 5, 2010 - In December 2009 Invest in ME (www.investinme.org) announced its plans to attempt to fund research by Dr. Jonathan Kerr. This was in conjunction with the charity ME Solutions, and we wished to maximise the opportunities to fund research into ME/CFS. The research project was:

The role of XMRV in modulation of NK cell cytotoxicity and NK cell gene abnormalities in ME/CFS patients and normal blood donors

Recently Dr Kerr informed us that he was withdrawing the grant application, as a study in which he was involved has shown no XMRV in ME/CFS patients.

This now means that the fund-raising for this particular project will be halted.

Invest in ME have contacted those supporters who have donated funds specifically to aid this particular project and we have offered to refund the donations. We are happy to announce that all our supporters have requested that we retain the funds donated and use them for biomedical research.

The supporters of IiME, those who fund and those who provide moral and other support, are the finest in the ME community. These supporters remain, for the most part, anonymous yet they continue to be the source of our determination to continue to campaign for biomedical research and raise awareness and improve education about myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Therefore, we are planning on helping the Whittemore-Peterson Institute directly by offering to fund some important work on XMRV in UK/European patients.

We know this may not be a massive contribution in the grand scheme of things but we feel it is important to give as much financial support, and all the moral support that we can at this time to the WPI and their research colleagues.

We hope to have more news soon.

Invest in ME will continue to campaign for biomedical research into ME and we hope to be able to fund more such work in the future.


http://www.prohealth.com/library/sh...ium=SiteTracking&utm_campaign=home_LatestNews


Sounds like Kerr was convinced by the earlier paper he was involved with. I was looking foreward to the Kerr/Mikovits one.

 

[Hope123]

It's still possible that Mikovits and Kerr are still working together, just that Kerr will no longer be exploring the XMRV and NK cell connections. He're returning grant money for this particular project but the big one, $1.6 million over 5 years from NIH, is more about infections and pathophysiology in general in CFS and not just XMRV. Time will tell. As long as he's not pulling entirely out of CFS research, I wil be satisfied with that.

 

[Frickly]

With all due respect....I think your way off base to include "WPI going it alone" in the title of your thread.

 

[ukxmrv]

I think that the title is wrong and I would ask the poster or one of the moderators to change this.

The email doesn't support the title. Sad to see that "spin" put on it.

Having spoken to Invest in ME I can clarify that Dr Kerr has ONLY pulled out of this one research project. He was hoping to use the same subjects for his NK cells as per the Bishop et al paper. They didn't find XMRV in their CFS cohort so he could not carry out this project.

 

[Esther12]

It's still possible that Mikovits and Kerr are still working together, just that Kerr will no longer be exploring the XMRV and NK cell connections. He're returning grant money for this particular project but the big one, $1.6 million over 5 years from NIH, is more about infections and pathophysiology in general in CFS and not just XMRV. Time will tell. As long as he's not pulling entirely out of CFS research, I wil be satisfied with that.

I wonder what will happen with that one. It sounded to me as if Kerr had decided against XMRV research at this point - UKXMRV says that it was only this one XMRV project though.

re title: I see what people mean, but I never meant the WPI were the ONLY people doing XMRV research, just that they were now going it alone with an Invest in ME project rather than working with Kerr. I'm happy to have it changed if others prefer though. I can't edit the title.

 

[leelaplay]

I wonder what will happen with that one. It sounded to me as if Kerr had decided against XMRV research at this point - UKXMRV says that it was only this one XMRV project though.

re title: I see what people mean, but I never meant the WPI were the ONLY people doing XMRV research, just that they were now going it alone with an Invest in ME project rather than working with Kerr. I'm happy to have it changed if others prefer though. I can't edit the title.

Hi Esther - thanks for agreeing to change the thread title.

You can change the thread title. I just experimented on a thread that i| started. Click 'edit post', then 'go advanced'. At the very top there's a box that says 'reason for edit', and under it is the title box, which is changeable.

 

[Orla]

<You can change the thread title. I just experimented on a thread that i| started. Click 'edit post', then 'go advanced'. At the very top there's a box that says 'reason for edit', and under it is the title box, which is changeable. >

Thank you IslandFinn ! you have solved one of the great mysteries of the universe for me!

Orla

 

[Esther12]

<You can change the thread title. I just experimented on a thread that i| started. Click 'edit post', then 'go advanced'. At the very top there's a box that says 'reason for edit', and under it is the title box, which is changeable. >

Thank you IslandFinn ! you have solved one of the great mysteries of the universe for me!

Orla

Indeed. Job done.

edit: I don't think I changed it to this title? Did someone else? Oh well - it looks fine to me.

 

[leelaplay]

Indeed. Job done.

edit: I don't think I changed it to this title? Did someone else? Oh well - it looks fine to me.

Thanks again Esther. Looks like you got lucky to me. My guess is that an administrator saw

re title: I see what people mean, but I never meant the WPI were the ONLY people doing XMRV research, just that they were now going it alone with an Invest in ME project rather than working with Kerr. I'm happy to have it changed if others prefer though. I can't edit the title.

and pitched in to help you out.

Orla - isn't it nice when you find one of the missing puzzle pieces!

 

[Cort]

I wish Invest in ME would get their act together! They way they put sounds like Kerr doesn't believe XMRV exists! If he's doing it because he doesn't have samples that an entirely different story.

I can believe Invest in ME would be so boneheaded! Kerr's loss would be a big blow. The way the first email is likely read could lead one to believe that a well respected researcher doesn't believe that there's a chance that a real replication study will turn up XMRV. I sent INVEST an e-mail.

 

[usedtobeperkytina]

Cort, without an explanation, and linking him to the UK study that didn't find it, leaves people to draw conclusions, some of which will not be correct.

I thought that possibly, he didn't believe it is linked to CFS, or he might know he doesn't have what he needs to find it (lack of resources), or he isn't getting what he needs from WPI (as rumors have been circulating that they aren't releasing the reagents).

I find the last option not likely, seems if WPI was open to anyone in UK having their reagents, it would be Kerr.

I understand why Kerr may not want to give a reason why. People's careers are going to fall on this issue. The line has been drawn. Best thing a researcher can do is to keep his thoughts to himself until more studies show which side is right.

Tina

 

[V99]

Perhaps invest in ME do know why Kerr has pulled out. It may be that because he is associated with one study, he feels it is unprofessional to start another. I have know idea. However Kerr has not publicly said. I didn't read it to mean he felt XMRV will not be found.

 

[Mithriel]

This study was to be done in conjunction with a Dr Bansal whose clinic does CBT and GET.

I think a lot of people were suspicious about donating.

Mithriel

 

[usedtobeperkytina]

Could be that he got funding for another XMRV study, and wasn't quite enough for this one, so he committed to doing the one he had funding for and let the other one go. Didn't think he could do two at once.

Just speculating here.

Tina

 

[Cort]

Who knows...its an obscure message.

I sent Invest in ME an email -I asked did he pull out because he doesn't believe XMRV is in CFS in the UK or because he doesn't have the samples to the do the study? Two very different scenario's.

Until they explain I'm going to assume the first - because that's what the tenor of the message lends me to believe - however the second could certainly be true. Whatever, they get my vote for worst press release of the year.

 

[starryeyes]

This study was to be done in conjunction with a Dr Bansal whose clinic does CBT and GET.

I think a lot of people were suspicious about donating.

Mithriel

Thanks for letting us know Mithriel. I'm glad Kerr pulled out of that.

 

[Countrygirl]

Cort;54305]Who knows...its an obscure message.

I sent Invest in ME an email -I asked did he pull out because he doesn't believe XMRV is in CFS in the UK or because he doesn't have the samples to the do the study? Two very different scenario's.

Until they explain I'm going to assume the first - because that's what the tenor of the message lends me to believe - however the second could certainly be true. Whatever, they get my vote for worst press release of the year.

I've had an e-mail from Dr Judy to say that she now has several hundred UK people to test for XMRV. She says this is to convince the UK researchers (including Kerr?) that XMRV is here in high numbers. She believes this particular research will persuade researchers and governments to take the ME/XMRV association seriously, providing the replication study faithfully follows the methodology used in the Science study.

Dr Judy has all the patients she needs now.

 

[Abraxas]

This study was to be done in conjunction with a Dr Bansal whose clinic does CBT and GET.

I think a lot of people were suspicious about donating.

Mithriel

Thanks Mithriel, that would explain a lot. Do you have a link to any info about the study that was proposed?

 

[garcia]

Who knows...its an obscure message.

I sent Invest in ME an email -I asked did he pull out because he doesn't believe XMRV is in CFS in the UK or because he doesn't have the samples to the do the study? Two very different scenario's.

Until they explain I'm going to assume the first - because that's what the tenor of the message lends me to believe - however the second could certainly be true. Whatever, they get my vote for worst press release of the year.

Cort I spoke to Dr Kerr on Friday, and he gave no indication to me that he doesn't believe XMRV is in CFS in the UK. He seemed genuinely open-minded on the issue and as keen to know the answer to XMRV as the rest of us. I didn't see anything wrong with the InvestinME press release.

 

[fds66]

One scenario that occured to me is that maybe Kerr was going to use the testing methods that turned out to be negative in the previous study and now doesn't have access to a reliable test method to detect XMRV in whatever samples he was planning on using? I agree the announcement is vague.