ME Association: Website survey: What do you think should be our research funding priorities for 2018?

To go straight to the survey, it's on the MEA home page, http://www.meassociation.org.uk/, towards the bottom of the page, middle column.

Options are:

• UK M.E. Biobank
  
• Role of infection
  
• Immune system dysfunction
  
• Mitochondrial function
  
• Neurological involvement e.g. inflammation, PoTS, and nervous system
  
• Metabolomic research
  
• Microbiome research
  
• Sleep research
  
• Activity management incl. Pacing
  
• Drug treatments aimed at symptom relief
  
• Other - please let us know!

Personally, I hope that the BioBank get a lot of votes, well characterised samples are extremely important and use of their samples can really reduce the cost of research.

http://www.meassociation.org.uk/201...-funding-priorities-for-2018-04-january-2018/

ETA: Options available and plug for the Biobank.

 

Great to see them engaging with patients. They’re also taking suggestions on their Facebook page.
Good shout on the Biobank.

 

I'm currently less inclined to respond to this survey and more inclined to request Charles Shepherds participation back on the online forums regarding the numerous developments there have been around the Tuller blogs, the BMJ and COPE issue and the ongoing damage Crawley is doing with her deluded behaviours. Especially considering BACME has this week openly declared they want to merge with the CMRC and the ME Association is in the CMRC and Holgate seems to be on another planet when it comes to addressing the disaster that is Esther Crawley.

 

He has also had a hundred and thirty seven relatives staying for Christmas and is bushed out. Give him a break chaps!! He will be back in good time.

 

Well the issue with biobank was as Davis says, if the blood is collected wrong then all studies are screwed!!! So not sure we know enough as to how to collect the blood properly at this point.
The other for studies stuff look ok.
I would love to see some family incidence studies ( wouldn’t cost much to add questionare to the patients pass by)

 

I voted "Drug treatments aimed at symptom relief" because this is what we all want, a treatment or cure.
That said i don't understand how money spent on it will lead to them. What is their plan if this option is what they pursue (though it has a low number of votes).

 

So using that argument, we shouldn't trust any study that studies patients blood as nobody knows how to collect it properly.....

 

This is not the situaiton. The Biobank samples are collected and stored using the most reliable methods available to lab research, which are fine for most studies. Moreover, the Biobank people are in discussion with groups who have made careful analysis of suitability of these storage methods for more specialised assays (including Prof Blanco in Spain who has published on this, and also Dr Hornig). Dr Davis was probably referring to specialised forms of analysis which may require different preparation of samples such as RNA content. Nobody is going to use Biobank samples for studies of that sort if we know they are unsuitable. For things like antibody tests and DNA analysis the samples are absolutely fine.

 

Current vote levels

• UK M.E. Biobank (13%, 72 Votes)
• Role of infection (5%, 26 Votes)
• Immune system dysfunction (17%, 94 Votes)
• Mitochondrial function (18%, 101 Votes)
• Neurological involvement e.g. inflammation, PoTS, and nervous system (18%, 102 Votes)
• Metabolomic research (10%, 54 Votes)
• Microbiome research (6%, 33 Votes)
• Sleep research (4%, 20 Votes)
• Activity management incl. Pacing (2%, 10 Votes)
• Drug treatments aimed at symptom relief (6%, 36 Votes)
• Other - please let us know! (2%, 10 Votes)

 

I mainly wanted to vote against activity management and sleep research (sorry sleep researchers - there just seems to be a lot of junk), so glad to see that they're a the bottom!