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New blog at ME/CFS Research Review Dr Ron Davis has won a large NIH (US National Institutes of Health) grant for an immunology project with a strong focus on HLA genes. Which may have led some to wonder, ‘What are they?’ HLA (human leukocyte antigen) molecules play a critical role in the...

Good point. There’s a lot of time and resources being ploughed into this hot topic by some excellent researchers. That’s not so unusual in many fields. Wouldn’t it be great if it became commonplace for ME/CFS research?

Yes. For clarity, the PhD is funded to £90k (half from AfME, half from the Scottish Chief Scientist's Office). Chris will cover direct costs for kit etc from his lab budget. I don't have figures, but wouldn't be surprised if the final cost is closer to £150k. In addition, the core technology...

Answers from Chris Ponting: 1. People recruited: 500,000 of whom over 2,000 people were self-reporting as having been diagnosed with ME/CFS. Yes, those who were housebound are clearly underrepresented. 2. Yes, [as per Jonathan Edwards explanation], it's less likely to be a critical amino acid...

This looks very encouraging to me. The most important thing is that it is a pitch for more funds to the Medical Research Council's Population and Systems Medicine board. I will charitably assume that accounts for the rather glossy history of the CMRC. The document highlights the key symptom of...

Thanks, and also I see that I went on to talk about the potential new study that I didn’t want discussed here! However, Chris just made a comment to me that seems relevant here. I think he was talking more generally, but it seems especially appropriate here: Chris has a very collaborative...

Yes, that one hit might be, but "(4) ME/CFS has a biological component because the heritability of ME/CFS is not zero. Canela-Xandri et al. estimate that the genetic heritability (liability scale) is 0.080. " I'm pretty sure that heritability isn't just calculated from the one significant hit...

I always take a look at the male/female split in a study and I can't remember one with decent diagnosis that wasn't c75% female. Having said that, many with flaky diagnosis aren't so different (eg PACE using Oxford criteria). It might, in part, be due to doctor's looking for it more in female...

Yes, that was my thought too - but this was only a small study with many caveats so it would be dangerous to put too much weight on the one hit. It's more the other way around - the fact that something was found on what is a very small study in terms of GWAS - suggests a bigger study is...

Guest blog by Professor Chris Ponting and colleagues at ME/CFS Research Review UK Biobank - a national biobank different from the ME/CFS biobank - has data from around 500,000 individuals, including both healthy people and those with one or more of the many different diseases in the UK...

I didn't know that. But presumably it's still a sign of immune action? Earlier during the Stanford symposium, Mark Davis showed clonal expansion in CD4 cells for colon carcinoma taken from diseased tissue vs no expansion in adjacent healthy tissue. But I think the MS results were from blood...

Chris Ponting will be at the event (he’s based at Edinburgh University).

Sorry, my comment wasn't very clear. I really shouldn't post before I'm awake. The OMF review on 25 May said: The "click here" details. Looking again at that, they are taking 25 patients and Many studies have highlighted issues with the immune system in ME/CFS, ranging from altered...

Mark Davies is trying to find the antigen that he believes has set of the clonal expansion. That could identify if this is autoimmunity or driven by a particular pathogen. So if that checks eggs then it could lead to targeting the pathogen/autoimmunity and say potentially lead to a cure. That’s...

Glad you liked it! Because the technology is still being developed, there isnt an exact timetable for when it will be up and running in this project. But if Chris manages to recruit a suitable candidate to start this autumn, the new technology could be being used late 2019 running into 2020...

Full blog A team led by Edinburgh University’s Professor Chris Ponting has won funding for a PhD student who would follow up and expand on remarkable recent findings made at Stanford University where Dr Mark Davis may have pinpointed a major issue in the immune system in ME/CFS. Last year...

The biology behind the study The aim of the PhD is to build on Mark Davis's work, which indicated that for mecfs the problem with the immune system could be T-cell clonal expansion. T cells are cousins of antibody producing B cells. And just as antibodies have very specific binding, so too do...

A bit of background Me too. The study came about after I mentioned Mark Davis's work on T cells to Chris. I thought that was one of the most promising findings I'd ever seen. From my blog on the work: Look at that difference! Chris also thought it was exciting and important. I hadn't expected...

New biomedical research PhD launched in Scotland https://www.actionforme.org.uk/news/new-biomedical-research-phd-launched-in-scotland/ Action for M.E. and the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist’s Office are delighted to announce the recipient of our jointly funded PhD studentship in...

A non-technical perspective: When I tried the Stroop test, I found it incredibly hard. My brain was totally focused on that and nothing else. Sure, I wasn’t in an MRI scanner, but I don’t think that would’ve made any difference. My brain had no spare capacity for anything beyond the test...