The National ME/FM Action Network and its membership are always pleased to assist researchers in furthering a better understanding of  ME/CFS and FMS.

The following request has been received from Dr. E. Stein on behalf of the University of Alberta

New Research Study – Volunteers needed including the severely ill

The University of Alberta recently received a generous endowment to establish the Dr. Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology.  Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, a virologist with a long time interest in ME/CFS and former Dean of Medicine at U of Alberta is the Director of the new institute. Dr. Michael Houghton a co-discoverer of the Hepatitis C virus has been recruited to lead new research.  Despite the recent controversy over the XMRV virus, Drs. Tyrrell and Houghton want to look for the XMRV virus in Alberta patients with ME/CFS.  Dr. Houghton has been in touch with Dr. Mikovits at the Whittemore Peterson Institute and other experts in the field to ensure that the methodology of the study will be adequate to detect the virus if present.

We have an ambitious time line.  The study will go before the U of Alberta ethics committee on July 23.  If approved we want to have blood samples collected and analyzed by August 30th so that we are in a position to use whatever information we find to apply for a bigger grant to do more detailed research.  The grant application deadline is September 15th, 2010.

Our protocol includes an assistant who will go to the participant's home or work (or some other location if preferred) to draw the blood.  We hope this will allow the severely ill to participate as the blood can be drawn from the bedside if necessary.

We are looking for 50 subjects with ME/CFS (meeting Canadian Consensus Criteria) and 50 healthy people matched by age and gender.

To Participate: If you live in the Edmonton area please contact  the ME Society of Edmonton at: <mailto:meofedm@telusplanet.net>meofedm@telusplanet.net or Diane Ching at <mailto:diane.ching@telus.net>diane.ching@telus.net

If you live in the Calgary area contact my office at: <mailto:espc@shaw.ca>espc@shaw.ca or 403 287-9941

As soon as we have ethics approval we will contact each person to explain the study and send the inevitable study questionnaires and consent forms to have completed prior to the blood draw.  As always participation in research is entirely optional and will not impact your clinical care in any way.

Over the years we have been approached by Canadian as well as international researchers.   Many of our members have volunteered and participated as research subjects for the various studies.
 
We invite researcher to use our Canada-wide membership for their research studies.  We are pleased to post information regarding research studies.

• See Canadian News if you wish to participate in a study on online information for FMS.