The 7th Invest in ME

International ME/CFS Conference 2012

Building a Future for Research into ME
Clinical and Research Updates in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Dr Donald Staines
 

Associate Professor, Bond University, Public Health Physician, Australia
 

 
Professor Olav Mella
  University of Bergen, Institute of Medicine, Section for Oncology
 

 
Dr Øystein Fluge
  University of Bergen, Institute of Medicine, Section for Oncology
 

 
Dr Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik
  Associate Professor, Biochemistry, Bond University, Australia
 

 
Professor Hugh Perry
  Professor of Experimental Neuropathology, University of Southampton
 

 
Dr Mario Delgado
  Head of Department of Immunology and Cell Biology, Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine, Spain
 

 
Dr Daniel Peterson
  Simmaron Research, USA
 

 
Dr Andreas Kogelnik
  Director of the Open Medicine Institute
 

 
Professor James Baraniuk
  Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Medicine.
 

 
Dr Ian Gibson
  Former Dean of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia
 
   
 
 
   
 
 
   
   
   

 

Additional speakers will be announced

 

 

 

 

Dr Don Staines
Dr Donald Staines is a public health physician at Gold Coast Population Health Unit. He has worked in health services management and public health practice in Australia and overseas. His interests include collaborative health initiatives with other countries as well as cross-disciplinary initiatives within health. Communicable diseases as well as post infectious fatigue syndromes are his main research interests. A keen supporter of the Griffith University Medical School, he enjoys teaching and other opportunities to promote awareness of public health in the medical curriculum.
 
 
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Professor Olav Mella

Professor Mella and Dr Fluge have published a paper "Benefit from B-Lymphocyte Depletion Using the Anti-CD20 Antibody Rituximab in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. A Double-Blind and Placebo-Controlled Study"

More details - click here

 
 
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Dr Øystein Fluge

Øystein Fluge received medical degree in 1988 at the University of Bergen, and is a specialist in oncology since 2004. He has worked as a Research Fellow with support from the Norwegian Cancer Society and is now chief physician at the Cancer Department, Haukeland University Hospital. Doctoral work emanates from the Surgical Institute and Department of Molecular Biology, University of Bergen.

 
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Dr Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik is one of Australia's foremost researchers in the area of neuroimmunology and has been instrumental in establishing the Public Health and Neuroimmunology Unit (PHANU) at Bond University.

Much of her work relates specifically to autoimmunity in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers and she is regularly asked to speak to community groups on behalf of Queensland Health and NSW Health. Her research in the area of exercise immunology has also contributed to the body of knowledge relating to the effect of doping in sport and she serves as Sports Medicine Australia's national spokesperson in this area.

The vital research conducted by Professor Marshall has attracted more than $1 million in grant funding and she has produced 21 peer-reviewed papers, five book chapters and one provisional patent. In 2008 Dr Marshall was joint leader of the Bond University team responsible for developing the the BioSMART program. The team was awarded a prestigious Australian Teaching and Learning Council Award (formerly known as the Carrick Award) for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning and for the quality of student learning over a sustained period of time.

 
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Professor Hugh Perry

Professor Perry and his team study Inflammation in the CNS and its contribution to Neurological Disease. The results of this research may help in the development of therapies to treat acute and chronic neurodegenerative conditions, which at present are largely untreated.

Inflammation biology in the brain is a complex subject and requires expertise in many different areas. The CNS Inflammation Group have collaborations with academic laboratories across the University of Southampton, the UK, as well as with laboratories across Europe.

 
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Dr Mario Delgado

As a neuroimmunologist, his main research focus has been to understand the bidirectional communication that exists between immune and neuroendocrine systems. A primary objective of the Delgado laboratory is to identify endogenous anti-inflammatory factors, mainly neuropeptides and hormones, that are produced under inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, with the aim of identifying therapeutic agents for immune disorders where tolerance is compromised. 

 
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Dr Daniel Peterson

Daniel L. Peterson, M.D., is an internist in Incline Village, Nevada and recognized medical expert on CFS/ME.

Dr. Peterson is founder of Simmaron Research, and serves on its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Peterson has devoted 25 years of his clinical career to diagnosing and caring for patients with CFS/ME and related neuroimmune disorders, and collaborating with researchers to better understand the illness. Dr. Peterson’s repository of more than 1,000 patient biological samples and records is a rich resource for research studies. His experience as both a clinician and a research collaborator provides a unique perspective on CFS/ME for developing translational science. In 2011, Dr. Peterson was appointed Adjunct Professor on the faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine at Bond University in Queensland, Australia.

 
 
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Dr Andreas Kogelnik

Dr Andreas Kogelnik is the Founding Director of the Open Medicine Institute, a collaborative, community-based translational research institute dedicated to personalized medicine with a human touch while using the latest advances in medicine, informatics, genomics, and biotechnology.

The Institute works closely with the Open Medicine Clinic and other clinics to conduct research and apply new knowledge back into clinical practice.

Dr. Kogelnik received his M.D. from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and his Ph.D. in bioengineering/bioinformatics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Subsequently, he completed is residency in Internal Medicine and a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Stanford University and its affiliated hospitals.

Following his clinical training, he remained at Stanford with NIH funding to engage in post-doctoral research in microbiology, immunology and bioinformatics with Dr. Ellen Jo Baron and Dr. Stanley Falkow, where he explored host-response profiles in severely ill patients.

Together with Dr. José Montoya, he was instrumental in the conception, design, and execution of the EVOLVE study - a placebo-controlled, double-blind study of a subset of chronic fatigue syndrome patients with evidence of viral infection.

Dr. Kogelnik worked with Dr. Atul Butte in translational informatics to determine patterns that indicated a high risk for adverse events in paediatric patients at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital.

He is the Medical Director of the Open Medicine Clinic - a community-based research clinic focussed 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. 

With the Open Medicine Institute, he has led the formation of CFS and Lyme Registries and Biobanks as well as creating an infrastructure for providers to collect better data and implement clinical trials across a network of sites.

 

 
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Professor James Baraniuk
James N. Baraniuk was born in Alberta, Canada. He earned his honours degree in chemistry and microbiology, medical degree, and unique bachelor's degree in medicine (cardiology) at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Thereafter, he moved to Akron, OH, USA, for his internship and internal medicine residency at St Thomas Hospital.

After another year of internal medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, he trained with Dr C.E. Buckley, III, in allergy and clinical immunology. He moved to the laboratory of Dr Michael Kaliner at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD, and there began his long-standing collaboration with Dr Kimihiro Ohkubo. After 2 years studying neuropeptides, he joined Dr Peter Barnes' laboratory at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Brompton Hospital, London, UK. Dr Baraniuk returned to Washington, DC, and Georgetown University, where he is currently Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Medicine.

 
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Dr Ian Gibson

Dr Ian Gibson, former Labour MP for Norwich North, worked at UEA for 32 years, became dean of the school of biological sciences in 1991 and was head of a cancer research team and set up the Francesca Gunn Leukaemia Laboratory at UEA.

In 2011 Dr Gibson received an honorary doctorate of civil law from UEA.

 
 
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Conference Agendanda

To be added shortly.

Last Updated:03/02/2012