Journal of IiME Volume 7 Issue 1 contamination of patient samples with different MLV sequences from mouse genomic DNA. We were unable to find XMRV sequences ourselves in HIV patients in the UK or within prostate cancer samples in the USA. In 2011 Vinay Pathak and colleagues described how XMRV is a recombinant virus that arose in the procedure in which the 22Rv1 cell line was derived by passage of human tumours in mice. The complex recombinant nature of XMRV and the lack of viral infection of tumour samples before exposure passage in mice convincingly demonstrated that the source of XMRV was contamination of PCR reactions with DNA from 22Rv1 cells or cloned XMRV encoding plasmid. These results and their implications for future retrovirus research in ME will be discussed. We are funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the UCL/UCLH National Institute of Health Research Biomedical Research Centre Pathogen Discovery in ME Professor Mady Hornig Associate Professor Mady Hornig, Center for Infection and Immunity (CII), Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, USA (May 2013) neuropsychiatric conditions, including autism, PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infection), mood disorders and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). She is widely known both for establishing animal models that identify how genes and maturational factors interact with environmental agents to lead to brain disorders and for her work clarifying the role of viruses, intestinal microflora and xenobiotics in autism and other neuropsychiatric illnesses that may be mediated by immune mechanisms. Under her direction, proteomic analyses of umbilical cord samples are identifying potential birth biomarkers for autism in a prospective study in Norway, the Autism Birth Cohort (ABC). She established that there was no association between intestinal measles virus transcripts and autism, and, with Brent Williams and W. Ian Lipkin at CII, has found altered expression of genes relating to carbohydrate metabolism and inflammatory pathways and differences in the bacteria harboured in the intestines of children with autism. She also leads projects examining the influence of immune molecules on brain development and function and their role in the genesis of schizophrenia, major depression, and cardiovascular disease comorbidity in adults, and directs the Chronic Fatigue initiative Pathogen Discovery and Pathogenesis Project at CII. In 2004, Dr. Hornig presented to the Institute of Medicine Immunization Safety Review Committee and testified twice before congressional subcommittees regarding the role of infections and toxins in autism pathogenesis. Mady Hornig, MA, MD is a physician-scientist in the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health where she serves as Director of Translational Research and is an associate professor of epidemiology. Her research focuses on the role of microbial, immune, and toxic stimuli in the development of Invest in ME (Charity Nr. 1114035) www.investinme.org Page 27 of 36 Her work in ME/CFS is establishing immune profiles and helping to identify pathogens that may be linked to disease. Her work on the MIND (Microbiology and Immunology of Neuropsychiatric Disorders) Project, one of the largest studies of immune factors in mood disorders and schizophrenia, examines the role of viruses and immune responses in the pathogenesis of these disorders. Abstract: Not available at time of printing – but will be made available on Invest in ME web site.
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