Thread by @OxMEDiscovery

Exciting news: We have just take on a second PhD student on a project exploring factors in the blood in ME/CFS #pwME and Chronic Lyme #lyme. We will test the energy modulating properties of samples from patients in different cell models. @MEAssociation #LongCovid

We will be use models to assess candidate factors including anti-microbial peptides, viruses, L-form bacteria and human retroviral elements. The project will further develop our diagnostic work bringing in our two partners ilof.tech and zegami.com.

We have funding for year 1 of the new PhD.
This takes us from 0 people, to 2 excellent PhD students on 3 year programmes. A really positive move forwards!! The support teams are taking shape including new areas of expertise, ethics and recruiting patients are new areas for us.

Our crowd funding campaign has not only been great for us to engage with patients but also opened up opportunities to collaborate with other researchers. This includes a potentially really exciting collaboration with a very close to home group in Oxford bit.ly/3mDaDJw

The other good news is we have received a global engagement grant from IBRO. This is to work with clinicians, patients and the general public in a series of programmes. We are currently deciding on our outline plan. The grant runs for 12 months. ibro.org

PANDAS & PANS pilot project @PandasPans . We are planning to recruit 10 patients and 10 unaffected siblings to run a deep sequencing study looking for bacterial pathogens in blood. Currently exploring where we might source patients for this work. More soon.

The not so good news is that Dr Eloy Almenar-Perez just failed by 2 points to obtain a two year fellowship to work with us. To see Eloy's PhD work see bit.ly/3lu1CTQ. If anyone is interested in supporting Eloy for 12 months, cost £70,000, please contact me directly.

wrh.ox.ac.uk/team/karl-mort…