IiME ADVISORY BOARD
As mentioned in last
month's newsletter the charity has formed an advisory board
of top researchers to help with planning the strategy for
future biomedical research and also for other events.
The first advisory board
meeting was held on Thursday 28 September 2014 in London.
Together we are working
on establishing the correct science to be involved in ME
research and on determining ways of using objective methods
for identification of cohorts of patients who can be put
forward for research.
A number of key areas and
possible projects have already been identified. We believe
our approach to initiating biomedical research into ME is
paying off and feel that the key elements of a correct and
productive strategy of research into ME are being, or have
been created.
More details
BRMEC5 COLLOQUIUM / IIMEC10 CONFERENCE - 2015
Today we can announce the
dates of our 2015 Biomedical Research Colloquium and
international ME Conference.
The Biomedical Research
into ME Colloquium 5 will take place on 28th May 2015.
The date for IIMEC10 - The 10th Invest
in ME International ME Conference 2015 - will be 29th May
2015.
Both events will be in
London.
It is difficult to
believe that the charity is looking at its tenth biomedical
research conference. The first conference in 2006 was
experimental, organised shortly after Invest in ME became a
charity. Our 2007 conference was also an experiment over two
days which looked at separate professionals and patients
days. But it was from after the 2007 conference that the
charity's focus became more organised as we looked at the
future and what was required. It was from that point that
our intent to coordinate biomedical research across
countries began to be formed.
The conferences and,
later, the Colloquiums have been generating new research and
opportunities for years. Our conferences have been
facilitating discussions and sharing of information between
patients, researchers and clinicians for almost 10 years.
The charity has now put
in place the key building blocks to progress ME research
with high-quality biomedical research in world class
organisations being performed by some of the best
researchers.
More details
We are currently
fundraising for our Biomedical Research Fund in order for us
to make progress on new ideas that have been identified by
our advisory board. All research projects are peer-reviewed
prior to any final funding decision. Our research funding
guidelines can be found
here.
We have been working with
UEA to attract more medical students (Mres) to join in with
the Invest in ME (Research) funded projects and we are
delighted to announce that we will have two medical students
working on biomedical research projects at UEA - in addition
to the existing PhD currently working on the UK Gut
Microbiota project. We are also discussing another Mres
student position with the university.
IiME are also looking to
fund two more PhDs at UEA and the university is helping to
make this happen. Certainly our advisory board is playing a
crucial role already. The charity is also in discussion with
advisors on two very exciting and crucial projects and these
are being worked on and we will have available more news of
these as soon as we can.
All of our plans are
building on our original proposal for a UK Centre of
Excellence for ME - see
here.
IIMEC9 Conference DVD September
The IIMEC9 conference DVD
is available and for September for any order for the DVD we
will include a printed copy of the BRMEC4/IIMEC9 Report
document (see article above) and an IiME wristband.
The DVD can be ordered
via this link - click
here.
Also in September we are
also offering your very own Professor Ldifme bear for £10 -
which includes postage and packaging. Professor Ldifme is
now gracing research labs around the world and raises the
LDIFME flag.
Read
More
IiME BRMEC4/REPORT DOCUMENT
We
mentioned in last month's newsletter that IiME have produced
a report for GPs and healthcare staff showing the extent of
current biomedical research into ME which is being
performed.
The
charity has printed copies available and we are happy to
send them to any healthcare professional who may find it
useful or to ME support groups.
Please contact the charity to arrange this - contact
us.
In
the meantime we are now publishing the copyrighted document
on our web site for people to refer to.
The
booklet includes a summary by the charity's adviser,
Jonathan Edwards, Emeritus Professor of Connective Tissue
Medicine at UCL and is available from IiME.
Read More
Invest in ME/UCL Rituximab Trial
Project Update
At our advisory board
meeting Dr Jo Cambridge gave a presentation on the status of
the UK Rituximab Trial project.
Dr Cambridge has also
produced for IiME an update which are pleased to publish on
our web site.
We would like to thank
everyone for the continued support as we build up a
contingency fund for the trial.
The campaign to raise
funds has been a truly international event and has involved
supporters from all over the world [click
here].
If the contingency fund
is not required for the trial then it will be added to the
Biomedical Research Fund to be used to fund other biomedical
research into ME projects.
Newslet link
European ME Alliance News
Our Swedish colleagues at
RME are hosting a seminar in the autumn in Stockholm.
The subject is ME and
Children and is primarily aimed at professionals in health care and schools.
The seminar will be
mainly in English.
Speaking at the seminar
will be -
-
Dr. Peter C. Rowe,
Johns Hopkins Children's Center, United States Pediatric ME
/ CFS
-
Dr. Nigel Speight,
The University Hospital of North Durham, UK
-
Dr. Amolak S
Bansal, Dept. of Immunology, St. Helier Hospital,
Carshalton, Surrey. UK
-
Nathalie Gillberg and Camilla
Gillberg - patient and parent
More details click
here.
