Mainstreaming ME Research: The 8th Invest In ME International ME Conference, 2013

Mark Berry reports from London on the 8th Invest in ME International ME Conference.

This was only my second year at the Invest in ME conference, but already I feel right at home! The presentations you’re about to read about are only half the story; the opportunity to mingle and network with a family (yes it really does feel like a family!) of top researchers, physicians, campaigners and patients from all over the world, is absolutely priceless. And this year, the new spirit of hope and togetherness in the air was a joy to behold.

The title this year was “Mainstreaming ME Research: Infections, Immunity and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis”, and the twin themes – an emerging consensus around a ‘paradigm shift’ to thinking about ME as an autoimmune disorder, and a focus on strategies for effective research and a breakthrough into the scientific mainstream – fit together perfectly. For it’s the growing recognition that immune treatments like Rituximab and Ampligen are having dramatic effects on many patients who were once bedbound and without hope, together with two decades of often confusing but highly suggestive research findings of immune dysfunction in ME patients, that is now threatening to propel ME from the backwaters of science right into the limelight.

A key part of that process has been Invest in ME’s Clinical Autoimmunity Working Group, formed last year – a group of researchers which meets before the main conference to discuss the latest scientific developments. The creation of international collaborative networks is surely valuable in any field of science, but in a field that has been so neglected and so under-resourced for so long, it’s even more important to maximize resources.