NEW! Cleveland Clinic Award for XMRV/CFS/Prostate

[parvofighter]

I think this is the calm before the storm of upcoming XMRV research.... so it took a bit of looking to find something really exciting on XMRV. Here's a very glitzy video by the Cleveland Clinic, uploaded to Youtube March 9th, but it's only had 31 viewers as of tonite, and I can't recall anyone talking about this yet...

From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWOWvdiXiSE

Cleveland Clinic Video on the 2009 Sones Innovation Award
​

Awarded to:

Dr Robert Silverman, Cancer Biology and
Dr Eric Klein, Chairman, Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute
​

Title of Video:

XMRV Discovery and Linkage to Prostate Cancer & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
​

Excerpt:

Klein: We asked a very simple question. If a gene whose normal function is to fight off viruses, when it has a mutation, increases a mans risk of getting prostate cancer to double the normal population could prostate cancer be caused by a virus. And thats where all the rest of the work has evolved from.

Narrator: In 2009 they found a similar immune defect in persons suffering from another unrelated condition.

Silverman: We were investigating whether or not this virus might also be associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome because of a deficiency in the same protein encoded by the same gene. It was a link between the two diseases in terms of the genetics. And then, sure enough, we identified XMRV in 67% of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Patients.
​

If this isn't a line drawn in the sand, I don't know what is! I love seeing how publicly - and flashily - the Cleveland Clinic is supporting Dr Silverman/Klein's work on XMRV, RNase-L, prostate cancer, and YES(!) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Yeah, yeah, causality hasn't been proved yet. But the tone of this video is very, very optimistic.... so much so that Silverman & Klein got an award not only for their XMRV work on prostate cancer, but also on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. :Retro smile:

I can't help thinking something happened in the XMRV research world - on or around early March - that emboldened the Sones Innovation people (who are they?) to award the team for their work not only in prostate cancer, but ME/CFS too. Anyone have an inside scoop?

 

[parvofighter]

P.S. The video's only 2 minutes long, so it's an easy view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWOWvdiXiSE

 

[Lily]

Yeah, who are they? (Sones Innovation) and who is the Whitman? Institute they also mention at the end?

 

[parvofighter]

Glickman, not Whitman

Yeah, who are they? (Sones Innovation) and who is the Whitman? Institute they also mention at the end?

Hi Lily, still digging on Sones... anyone?
As for the Glickman (not Whitman) Urological Institute, it is part of the Cleveland Clinic, and is "Ranked the No. 2 Urology Program in the nation by US News & World Report for 14 years." (http://my.clevelandclinic.org/urology/default.aspx ). Dr Klein, who shared the award with Dr Silverman, is Chairman of the Glickman Institute.

 

[Kati]

Thank you Parvo, great find! Let's give them the coverage they need!

 

[gracenote]

Thanks (again) parvo, for another great find.

That just feels so good to hear chronic fatigue syndrome mentioned in such a matter of fact way as if it's REAL!

 

[parvofighter]

A little more info on the Sones Innovation Award

Lily, here's some stuff I dug up on Sones. I've also emailed the Cleveland Clinic directly to send me more info - hopefully they'll have something. I'm wondering if the Sones Innovation Award is new, or newly named?

But here's what my sleuthing uncovered, and I think it's heading in the right direction. In a nutshell, Sones was an innovator extraordinaire - albeit by accident, (kinda like the inventor of Teflon, who left a bunch of chemicals in a barrel, then couldn't scrape them off the slippery sides):

From: http://www.ptca.org/archive/bios/sones.html

"While conducting an imaging procedure in which dye was to be injected into the aortic valve of a patient with valvular disease, Dr. Mason Sones a pediatric cardiologist at The Cleveland Clinic discovered that the catheter had accidentally entered the patient's right coronary artery and, before it could be removed, 30cc's of contrast dye had been released. He expected the heart to fibrillate, but it did not and Sones discovered that the coronary arteries could tolerate contrast dye. Sones recalled, "I knew that night that we finally had a tool that would define the anatomic nature of coronary artery disease."

Sones went on to perfect a revolutionary new technique for producing high quality diagnostic images of the coronaries using specially designed catheters. This breakthrough would make possible, for the first time, accurate diagnosis of coronary disease and set the stage for future therapeutic interventions, such as bypass surgery and, later on, coronary angioplasty."
​

From: http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/17/us/five-us-scientists-win-1983-lasker-award.html

"The winner of the ... Lasker clinical medical research award (in 1983) was Dr. F. Mason Sones Jr. of Cleveland Clinic Foundation for ''daring innovations'' that have transformed the entire field of heart disease diagnosis."
​

From: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=34781485

In 1967 a Cleveland Clinic colleague, Dr. Ren Favaloro, performed the world's first coronary bypass surgery. Dr Favaloro called Sones, "The most important contributor to modern cardiology," and said that without his work, "all our efforts in myocardial revascularization would have been fruitless."
​

From: http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=SFMJM

In 1950, Sones joined the CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION as the Director of Pediatric Cardiology and the Cardiac Laboratory. Sones' first major contribution was the introduction of cardiac catheterization of neonatal patients in 1954. His 1958 discovery that human coronary arteries could safely be invaded with catheters and dyes to photograph their configurations initiated a new era for cardiology. Sones was also the first to combine cardiac catheterization, angiography, and high speed x-ray motion picture photography as a single procedure. Sones' subsequent work in video engineering (with Eastman Kodak), the chemistry of dye compounds, design of arteriography equipment, and optical image amplification allowed for improved cardiovascular diagnosis and treatment. From 1966 to 1975, Sones was the Director of the Clinic's Department of Cardiovascular Disease
​

All of this is shameless trivia... but it is kinda neat to see Silverman & Klein put in the same class of innovation as Sones, for their pioneering work in XMRV, prostate cancer, and (YES!) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. And you're right Gracenote - it's about BLOODY TIME that ME/CFS were treated with the intellectual curiosity and dignity it merits - from top-notch scientists to boot. When you think about it, it WOULD have taken award-calibre innovators to crack this disease, eh?

And @ Kati, yes, let's celebrate their successes and give these Cleveland Clinic award winners coverage! For those of you that haven't checked the 2 minute Youtube video, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWOWvdiXiSE . Viewership has jumped up nicely from the original 31 today...

George likes Sketti. I like digging... WOOF!:Retro smile:

 

[julius]

It sounds to me like its some sort of in house award. A little bit of a cheesy thing to do, but the fact they would 'make up' an award for this discovery suggests that they really want to bring awareness to it. So really good news either way.

 

[FernRhizome]

It might be a bit cheesey but who cares as its GREAT publicity for CFS......they could have done the award based on XMRV & prostate cancer only.....so anything in which a major clinic comes out and mentions CFS seriously is terrific PR. ~Fern

 

[HopingSince88]

Given that many PWC have IC (interstitial cystitis), the Glickman connection (and their standing...#2) can only help further the research on XMRV and CFS.

 

[Hysterical Woman]

Something nice to wake up to.

Thanks again, Parvo

HW

 

[Gemini]

parvo,

great information! thank you very much!

Gemini

 

[MEKoan]

Parvo, me darlin', many and much thanks to you!!!

There are so many signs, everywhere, that XMRV is not going away.

Even Wesseley is not speaking as though he believes his own bs study.

Fascinating!

:victory:

 

[oerganix]

Thanks for digging, Parvo!

 

[kit]

It might be a bit cheesey but who cares as its GREAT publicity for CFS......they could have done the award based on XMRV & prostate cancer only.....so anything in which a major clinic comes out and mentions CFS seriously is terrific PR. ~Fern

I agree! :Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile::Retro smile:

 

[MEKoan]

Originally Posted by FernRhizome
It might be a bit cheesey but who cares as its GREAT publicity for CFS......they could have done the award based on XMRV & prostate cancer only.....so anything in which a major clinic comes out and mentions CFS seriously is terrific PR. ~Fern

This is huge. HUGE.

:victory:

 

[mezombie]

Thanks Parvofighter!

This definitely made my day!

Let's keep clicking on that YouTube video -- and log in to rate it!

 

[usedtobeperkytina]

How funny, I found the video while doing Youtube searches. Yet I didn't even catch that the introduction was saying they won an award.

Not only was there effort in the award, even if in house. Notice also that a video was made which took time and effort to edit. They think this is big news for them.

Tina

 

[MEKoan]

Notice also that a video was made which took time and effort to edit.

And, quite a bit of money. That's quite an expensive little video. Professionally shot, cut, voiced, written... with nice graphics and titles. I don't know what the going rate is these days but that's an expensive message.

We should be very happy!

 

[parvofighter]

Not shy to stand tall next to CFS

And, quite a bit of money.

Koan, you hit the nail on the head. It's great to see:

1. The esteemed Cleveland Clinic publicly celebrating their association with XMRV and ME/CFS! This is the one that has me the MOST excited - they are not shying away from the XMRV/CFS association.
2. Putting the level of innovation for the discovery of XMRV/prostate/CFS on par with Sones' discovery of contrast dye used in angiography
3. ANYONE spending significant money on ME/CFS! It's nice to see CFS dolled up, ain't it?:Retro smile:

Check out the 2 minute video and rate it!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWOWvdiXiSE