I want to pass on this email I got this morning from Courtney Miller. Simmaron has got all but $20k of the $225k needed for its pilot study into NK cells in ME, and if it can fund the pilot study, it automatically gets $1 million for the big study.
Not often we get the chance to multiply our donations by FIFTY!!! Although Courtney talks in her email about your donation effectively getting multiplied by five, that was when there was £225k to raise - now we're down to the last $20k, it's not five, it's fifty.
I think this is a very exciting study - NK cells going weird is a key feature of ME but understudied.
As Alex says in his response below, 'Its the best study we have going aside from Rituximab. It could lead to not only a diagnostic biomarker, but a treatment biomarker that could guide doctors on how various treatment protocols are working.'
So, I've given them a fair whack of my cash. This is unusual for me because I'm fairly tightfisted but this is an important study and FIFTY...
Even if you can give only a few quid/bucks/euros, it will all help. Just giving $10 will be like giving $500!
Not often we get the chance to multiply our donations by FIFTY!!! Although Courtney talks in her email about your donation effectively getting multiplied by five, that was when there was £225k to raise - now we're down to the last $20k, it's not five, it's fifty.
I think this is a very exciting study - NK cells going weird is a key feature of ME but understudied.
As Alex says in his response below, 'Its the best study we have going aside from Rituximab. It could lead to not only a diagnostic biomarker, but a treatment biomarker that could guide doctors on how various treatment protocols are working.'
So, I've given them a fair whack of my cash. This is unusual for me because I'm fairly tightfisted but this is an important study and FIFTY...
Even if you can give only a few quid/bucks/euros, it will all help. Just giving $10 will be like giving $500!
October 20, 2012
Dear Friends,
My husband Robert has been ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or ME/CFS, for more than 20 years.
Last year, President Obama made me a promise at a town hall meeting in Reno, Nevada, to go back to the National Institutes of Health and see if they could do better than fund just $6 million of scientific research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
This month, President Obama fulfilled his promise and became the first President to urge the Secretary of Health and the Director of the National Institutes of Health to “elevate CFS on the list of
priorities” at our federal health agencies.
We are celebrating this milestone. Still, Bob and I know we have a long way to go before there are multiple clinical trials for treatments, a test for diagnosis, and doctors in every city who know the gold standard of care.
So, why did I ask the President about funding for scientific research? Science holds the promise of treatments and more good days than bad. Science can tear down stigma and isolation which haunt patients. Science can tell us what makes us or our loved ones so sick.
Science is progress, and we need much, much more of it.
And we still need to fund it ourselves. That’s why I am asking you to join us in contributing to Simmaron Research Foundation. Simmaron Research needs our support to fund a groundbreaking study in collaboration with researchers in Australia and Wisconsin to answer why Natural Killer Cells don’t work correctly in ME/CFS patients. Low Natural Killer Cell function is one of the hallmark findings in this illness, yet very little research focuses on what goes wrong in those cells.
The Australian pilot study is already backed by a commitment of follow-on funding from an Australian foundation, meaning that Simmaron’s funds will multiply by 5, turning $225,000 into more than $1 million of strategic research in our disease. Simmaron is closing in on fully funding this pilot study, needing just $20,000 more. What an amazing opportunity to turn every $10 contribution into $50 strategically aimed at researching the cells that are broken in patients.
Magnifying our research funding is paramount. Studying biomarkers is pivotal. The Australian team, led by Dr. Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik at Griffith University, published a study in May 2012 entitled “Cytotoxic lymphocyte microRNAs as prospective biomarkers for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22572093) Furthering their research could change the pace of progress.
Please join Bob and me in completing the Australian pilot study and unlocking $1 million in sophisticated research for ME/CFS.
With hope and thankfulness,
Courtney and Bob
Courtney and Bob Miller, Reno, NV
Simmaron Research, 948 Incline Way, Incline Village, NV 89451
775-298-0030
