CDC Hosts Meeting on High-Tech Solutions to CFS Puzzles 

Researchers, engineers, computer whizzes and rocket scientists gathered for two-and-a-half days at the prestigious Banbury conference center on the campus of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories where DNA-discoverer Dr. James Watson fosters leading-edge research on a wide array of topics. The meeting, the third in a series of CFS-inspired think tanks sponsored by CDC, brought renowned experts in immunology together with those using mathematical, physics and engineering principles to analyze complex data sets and model intricate biological systems. Organizer Dr. Suzanne Vernon asked participants for guidance on CDC’s multifaceted research program that links epidemiology, clinical studies and high-tech proteomics and genomics investigations. Her hope is that these experts will help CDC researchers maximize the benefit of the millions of data points they have amassed on multiple body systems and cognitive and physical functioning of CFS patients and control groups studied. She was also interested in expert assessment of what can be learned about the body’s processes by looking at lymphocytes, the workhorse of the immune system.

Association president & CEO Kim McCleary attended the meeting and was impressed with the fresh perspectives offered by the dynamic group of specialists from areas of science not typically recruited into the study of disease. “These practitioners apply very different paradigms to data analysis and have amazing tools to model dynamic biological processes. I believe there is great promise in employing their approaches to understanding the sophisticated and often subtle abnormalities observed by CFIDS researchers. I was most encouraged by techniques they offered to link patient report, cognitive testing data, brain scan images and protein and gene maps to pinpoint the source of problems with processing and concentration that are so disabling to CFIDS patients. CDC should be commended for taking this novel approach to very complex problems that have eluded understanding.”

The meeting was held September 19-22, 2004 in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. CFIDS experts and several members of the CDC research group helped inform the group about CFS.

The CFIDS Association of America wishes to extend its sympathies to Dr. William Reeves and his family on the loss of his father, Dr. William C. Reeves, Sr., a distinguished medical entomologist who helped develop strategies to control the spread of West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases. The senior Dr. Reeves was a professor in the School of Public Health at University of California at Berkeley until his retirement. He died on September 18 of complications from a fall. The junior Dr. Reeves is principal investigator for CFS research at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.