Journal of IiME Volume 5 Issue 1 (May 2011) worked tirelessly to bring ME/CFS to the attention of decision makers so that this illness receives the consideration it needs and deserves. Millions of patients are suffering around the world and the ratio of money being spent on this disease and the economic losses it causes is at odds with any scientific, economic or moral viewpoint. Dr Judy Mikovits, one of the authors of Science study, was presenting here in May 2009 and had to keep this new information secret. She returns to the IiME conference to tell us how the work has progressed at the WPI and provide data regarding living humans who are infected and being treated with various immune modulators, as well as anti-retrovirals. We have the great pleasure of hearing Professor Geoffrey Burnstock, President of the Autonomic Neuroscience Centre at UCL, London, who is no stranger to being on the wrong side of established views in his long and distinguished career. Professor Burnstock‟s work has resulted in no fewer than three paradigm shifts, something that is desperately needed in the policies regarding ME/CFS research and management of patients. Professor Burnstock‟s work on autonomic nervous system and purinergic signalling is immensely important and may be very relevant to ME/CFS and we hope that his work gives inspiration to other scientists and ideas for clinical trials. The work of Professor James Baraniuk is concerned with looking at proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid of ME/CFS patients. Dr. Baraniuk and his team's current CFS study builds on a previous study where the team discovered some specific proteins in the spinal fluid of CFS and GWI patients. In the current study they will have a larger group of people with and without CFS/GWI and they will look for those and other unique sets of proteins in the spinal fluid and blood using more sensitive equipment. The team's hypothesis is that these specific proteins are seen in the spinal fluid of CFS and Gulf war Illness but not in healthy controls and that those Invest in ME (Charity Nr. 1114035) proteins will help us understand the cause of these conditions. Dr David Bell's name is familiar to anyone involved in ME/CFS. He was the local doctor in Lyndonville, New York when 214 people, many of them children, fell ill with mystery flu. He has carried on treating patients and performing research ever since. Currently he is involved in research on retroviruses and CFS being performed by Professor Maureen Hanson of Cornell University. From Norway promising research by cancer researchers from the University of Bergen using Rituximab is indicative of the value of clinical trials for ME. Professor OIav Mella has 30 years of experience in treating cancer patients. After a patient with a diagnosis of ME/CFS developed non- Hodgkins Lymphoma and was treated for it with Rituximab with unexpected resolution of ME/CFS symptoms as well Professor Mella and Dr Fluge initiated a pilot study with 2 other patients. This has led to further clinical trials with larger number of ME/CFS patients. We welcome Dr Andreas Kogelnik from California, USA, the Medical Director of the Open Medicine Clinic - a community-based research clinic focused on chronic infectious diseases, neuroimmune disease, and immunology. Dr. Kogelnik has published numerous scientific papers and book chapters, is an Editor of Computers in Medicine and Biology, and is a Consulting Assistant Professor at Stanford University. Together with Dr. José Montoya, he was instrumental in the conception, design, and execution of the EVOLVE study - a placebo-controlled, doubleblind study of a subset of chronic fatigue syndrome patients with evidence of viral infection. Dr John Chia has been a regular speaker at Invest in ME conferences. His work on enteroviruses and ME builds on previous research done in the UK by pioneers such as the late Dr John Richardson. Dr Chia works with his Continued page 7 www.investinme.org Page 6/58
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