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Here is the link to the Cause Page set up on Facebook by XMRV Global Action:
"Adopt A Sequence."
This has the advantage of allowing Automatic Monthly Donations.
A suggestion from Shelley:
---Hi Everyone! "Adopt A Sequence."
This has the advantage of allowing Automatic Monthly Donations.
A suggestion from Shelley:
This idea is inspired by a blog post made by gracenote part of which is below:
"" (I) think this is less about egos, and more about politics and money — research money.
Dr. Mikovits says they are "attempting to isolate and sequence XMRV from as many people as possible"
and that it's costly, around $2,500 per isolate. She says WPI hasn't been able to get funding: (...)
"You can get research $$ if you're looking at a prostate cancer patient and XMRV.
You can get millions of research $$ if you want to look at the immune response to XMRV in monkeys.
You can get NO research $$ to study XMRV in patients with ME/CFS."
""
Dr. Mikovits says they are "attempting to isolate and sequence XMRV from as many people as possible"
and that it's costly, around $2,500 per isolate. She says WPI hasn't been able to get funding: (...)
"You can get research $$ if you're looking at a prostate cancer patient and XMRV.
You can get millions of research $$ if you want to look at the immune response to XMRV in monkeys.
You can get NO research $$ to study XMRV in patients with ME/CFS."
""
As you can see it cost about 2,500 dollars as of now to sequence an XMRV isolate.
What are some Benefits to Sequencing an XMRV Isolate??:
By understanding the sequence of a genome of an organism in theory very many aspects of that organism can be deduced from the ground up! See Genome .
(For human genomes, in theory you could answer questions such as why specific organs have the structure and function they do if you knew how to interpret the genome sequence. Obviously for humans this "interpretation" is not anywhere near that far advanced at this point)
By knowing the genomes of more XMRV isolates someone can gain an understanding of:
- Variation of XMRV (how genetically different is the virus from patient to patient). This is a big question that needs to be answered before one can develop standardized treatments.
- Potential Resistance to Treatment: by knowing the degree of variation a researcher can make deductions about the virus's ability to mutate and resist a given treatment.
- If a researcher determines the sequence of the virus from the same patient at several different times that researcher will get a sense of how the virus evolves over time in that type of patient (for example maybe a patient with a mutation in the RNAseL pathway). This is important for designing treatment.
- Sequencing XMRV isolates over time from the same patient provides information on process of infection and pathenogenesis of the virus. Does infection go through several stages? Does it only go through one stage? Is the cell type which is initially most affected the one that remains the most affected?
- What organs are likely to be affected by the virus. Viruses use receptors on their surface to bind to specific receptors on cell types and this determines what types of human tissue they (can) infect. For instance HIV uses CD4.
- Is it a causal factor in ME/CFS?: This would seem to a separate issue but they are connected. By knowing what types of tissues a virus is likely to infect, by knowing what cells it is likely to infect, one can check to see if those cells are in fact infected in ME/CFS patients. If the implicated cells & tissues show abnormalities and infection this provides more evidence for causality.
- As a corollary: by knowing the sequence information a researcher can gain information about the virus's "lifecycle" and make hypotheses about what types of immune responses are most necessary to control the infection. A researcher can then check the status of the impairment of these immune responses in ME/CFS (either by doing new studies or searching the literature).
- By determining which immune responses are needed to control the infection one can then make hypotheses about how at risk the XMRV infected healthy population (3.7% from Science Study) are likely to develop ME/CFS. Suffice to say some % of this population may be at high risk and determining the sequences of viral isolates will help determine which infected people are at high risk and which are at low risk. This will probably relate to genetic factors in each of these individual's immune responses.
- Sequence information will help give information on XMRV's virulence (aggressiveness). Are there different types with one being more aggressive or are all the XMRV isolates alike in aggressiveness? (only one type). This will also help determine how "at risk" the healthy population infected with XMRV is (not only for ME/CFS but for any complications from the viral infection generally).
- How was the virus introduced to the human population? When was it introduced? Was it introduced just once or at multiple times? By analyzing the degree of variability in different XMRV isolates (through sequencing) researchers are able to make gain knowledge that will help in answering these questions.
Now I'm positive with all the people on the board, we could make this number through donations. So this is a thread for people who have made, or are going to make, a Donation to the Whittemore Peterson Institute.
Most of us are poor, to say the least. However, if we were to donate only 5-15% of the money we spend on supportive treatments, vitamins and the like per month (whether the donation is one-time or monthly) we could easily get above and beyond $2,500!
Here is the link:
http://www.wpinstitute.org/help/help_donation.html
Also if you think it is too difficult to donate straight-out consider these options:
* Google Checkout
* IGIVE.com
* Ebay Giving Works
Most allow you to give while doing something else which you would do anyway (Search Engine, Sell on Ebay) Some of these might not work as yet, for example WPI isn't registered as a charity with Ebay as of this post though I submitted it to be registered (though it is on IGIVE).
As much as possible I'd like to limit posts in this thread to:
A.) To people posting their donations together with any personal remarks or remarks regarding research:
I.) Use format:
(I. Amount you donated/plan to donate)
(II. Your personal remarks)
B.) To people with alternative ideas:(II. Your personal remarks)
(Please make your own thread but feel free to post in this one directing people to your thread for advocacy/research.)
If everyone likes this idea-- I can tabulate the total every so often and post it in the thread or on this page.
Also if there is anyone who is well off and who would like to match everyone in the threads donations (or match half etc.) please PM me and I will update this page with that information.
Note: The name I usually post under is "Sunnyslumber" I'm using a different name since "Sunnyslumber" really lacks giving any connotation of energetic action
