xmrv
sa smith | August 27, 2014You all might remember, Judy Mikovits and Age of Autism contributor Ken Heckenlively, were releasing a book on 'their side' of the XMRV fiasco (the scientific side of the XMRV fiasco).
Plague: One Scientist’s Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Autism, and Other Diseases
Yes, that is really the title.
Stop laughing.
*snicker*
Anyway, that book was supposed to be released May 6th, 2014. But that date got pushed back to the summer. And then to September. And now the date is October 7th.
I positively cannot take the anticipation.
Thankfully, they…
sa smith | March 21, 2014I have known about this for a while, and have been debating whether or not I should say anything. I really dont want to give the disgraces responsible for the XMRV-->CFS fiasco, Judy Mikovits, Frank Ruscetti, and Sandra Ruscetti, any more attention. What turned my opinion was something T.R. Gregory said yesterday:
I don't *believe* in science or have *faith* in science. Rather, I *trust* scientific reasoning and the conclusions that come from evaluating evidence scientifically. The difference is that belief and faith don't need to be backed up. Trust, on the other hand, is earned.
Of…
sa smith | November 21, 2012Ask anyone who has stood up to quacks/charlatans/nutbars-- Crazy people be CRAZY.
Someone tries to educate the public, move their field, shine a candle in a demon haunted world, stand up for what they think is right, and they are rewarded with insane emails (check!), often including threats of physical violence (check!), badgering emails to ones employers (check, like, times eleventy!), which inevitably escalate into legal bullying (stifling free-speech by issuing false DMCAs, filing lawsuits with the intent of bankrupting the opposition, exploiting bullshit libel laws in backwards countries…
sa smith | September 21, 2012Jerome Horwitz, the man who invented AZT, died-- Being in the basic virology realm of HIV Research World, I dont always pay as much attention to the clinical side of things as I should. Thus I didnt know about the really interesting history of Jerome Horowitz and AZT. Apparently he invented it as an anti-cancer agent, it didnt work, and they forgot about it... until someone tested it as a therapeutic agent for HIV, a moment that changed the course of the HIV epidemic. Sure it wasnt a perfect drug (drug resistance when used alone, terrible side-effect profile), but it gave everyone hope…
sa smith | September 19, 2012Science hath no insanity like the XMRV fiasco.
*sigh*
But there is a constant, bright spot in this ridiculous storm, and I dont want it to be overlooked-- The scientific leadership of Robert Silverman, and everyone associated/partnered with his laboratory*.
As a young, hopeful, yet increasingly derisive scientist like myself, Silvermans behavior throughout all of this has been shockingly appropriate. Shockingly responsible. He is doing nothing that a good scientist shouldnt do, but its still shocking when people do the right thing, even at personal, professional, and financial cost to…
sa smith | July 31, 2012COOL!!!
Recombinant origin, contamination, and de-discovery of XMRV
I dont know if you all have access to this paper, but here is the relevant portion:
Treatment of CFS patient PBMCs with 5-azacytidine was omitted from Lombardi et al. paper
In September 2011, Abbie Smith, a graduate student and virology blogger, (http://scienceblogs.com/erv/) revealed that Dr. Judy Mikovits, the corresponding author of the Lombardi et al. study, presented a figure at a meeting that turned out to be identical to one in the original paper, but with different patient numbers and experimental conditions (John…
sa smith | May 30, 2012In 2006, long before ERV was a twinkle in my eye-- A really cool paper was published in PLOS Pathogens:
Identification of a novel Gammaretrovirus in prostate tumors of patients homozygous for R462Q RNASEL variant.
They found a 'new' retrovirus, XMRV ('new' to humans, old to mice). A new retrovirus in prostate tumors. Especially in prostate tumors that had a defect in an anti-viral protein, RNASEL. Not only was the idea that there was another human retrovirus out there incredible, it was an incredible finding for patients-- if a virus causes prostate tumors, then antiretrovirals could…
sa smith | May 18, 2012I have a some updates on a few stories I covered the past couple of weeks:
Some people who proclaim to have 'chronic fatigue syndrome' show everyone just how NOT CRAZY they are... by transcribing my entire interview with Conspiracy Skeptic by hand (they cant hold a job you see-- 'brain fog') and comparing me to a cheerleader/goat, and fantasizing about me getting my comeuppance for daring to speak negatively about St. Judy Mikovits (ie-- tell everyone the bullshit she and her comrades have been up to). Just to be clear, these folks are NOT CRAZY. THEYRE NOT FUCKING CRAZY GODDAMMIT!!!! We…
sa smith | May 1, 2012Several years ago, my friend Karl Mamer at Conspiracy Skeptic had me on to talk about HIV Denial.
A couple days ago, I was finally back to talk a bit about the science and politics of XMRV!
Make sure you listen to the very end to catch Arnies surprise cameo appearance! PUPPAH NO LIKE KITTEH!!!!! MUST NOM KITTEH!!!!!!
sa smith | March 13, 2012When a disaster happens in science, like the XMRV fiasco, the most important lesson everyone can take away from the incident is 'Why?'
If you understand the 'Why?' behind what happened, you can avoid the problem in the future.
So specifically in the case of the XMRV fiasco, the question was, "Why did samples in this study appear positive, while no one else could replicate the findings?"
The answer was contamination, contamination, contamination.
MLV viruses are in our cell lines (we already knew that) and mouse gnomic DNA, chock full of mouse ERVs, were in all of our reagents.
Well, neato.…
sa smith | January 3, 2012The very first sign Judy Mikovits was not just a little 'off-her-rocker' kook-coo, but full on 'off-the-rocker-set-it-on-fire-and-dancing-around-the-flames-nude-while-using-feces-as-war-paint' kook-coo, was this comment she made about XMRV, vaccines, and autism, before her shit paper was even published:
"On that note, if I might speculate a little bit," she said, "This might even explain why vaccines would lead to autism in some children, because these viruses live and divide and grow in lymphocytes -- the immune response cells, the B and the T cells. So when you give a vaccine, you send your…
sa smith | December 26, 2011(sorry about the commenting issues the past couple of days-- dunno what that was, fixed now!)
So, they finally retracted Lo et al, which should have never been published in the first place, as it turns out their findings were contamination, and they should have been aware of that if they BLASTed their goddamn sequences or did some basic evolutionary biology before they tried to publish.
Again, via Retraction Watch:
Another shoe drops as authors retract PNAS chronic fatigue syndrome-virus paper
The authors wish to note the following: "Although our published findings were reproducible in…
sa smith | December 22, 2011Thank you to Bruce Alberts for taking the initiative to do this*. I would also like to thank all of the hard working scientists, from all over the world, who did real research to help resolve this issue. It restores my faith in science. It really does.
[Shorter Bruce Alberts: FUS-RO-DAH!!!!]
[Bulk of the letter is up at Retraction Watch!]
Science is fully retracting the Report "Detection of an infectious retrovirus, XMRV, in blood cells of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome" (1). Multiple laboratories, including those of the original authors (2), have failed to reliably detect…
sa smith | November 21, 2011I mean for Petes sake:
Chronic fatigue syndrome researcher Judy Mikovits arrested
I mean, this is funny. No doubt this is funny.
Its funny to see The Patient Community defending Mikovits, the woman who said she didnt have a problem lying to patients when it was convenient for her.
Its funny to see The Patient Community 'figure out' what is going on, including the hypothesis that *I* stole the stuff (I SO DID, YOU GUAIS! I USED MY STAR TREK TRANSPORTER TO TELEPORT INTO THE WPI SEPTEMBER 30TH! I DIDNT FIGURE THIS OUT FROM PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFO, LOL!) and that Judy is going to get shanked by…
sa smith | November 3, 2011The very first red flag that something was very, very wrong with the 'XMRV=CFS' paper went up before the actual paper was published.
On the woo-rag Huffington Post, the anti-vaxer David Kirby posted a very, very odd comment from the lead researcher on the paper, Judy Mikovits:
And then Dr. Mikovits dropped a bombshell that is sure to spark controversy.
"On that note, if I might speculate a little bit," she said, "This might even explain why vaccines would lead to autism in some children, because these viruses live and divide and grow in lymphocytes -- the immune response cells, the B and the…
sa smith | September 30, 2011Ladies and gentlemen, a magic trick*.
I am going to take two pieces of data, from two independent experiments, establishing 'proof' of two different concepts, presented in to different formats and to different events...
... And turn them into the same figure.
*waits for the astonished mummers to simmer down*
In my left hand I hold 'Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome', a Science paper from 2009.
Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
We can ignore parts of this…
sa smith | September 26, 2011
If Ive said it once, Ive said it a thousand times here on ERV-- Scientists are wrong all the time. ALLLLLLLL the time. Its what we *do*. We make a hypothesis, design an experiment, collect data, and refine the hypothesis, because the original hypothesis was wrong.
Over and over and over and over and over. Less wrong to slightly less wrong, to slightly less wrong. But we are wrong all over the place.
Sometimes things go really wrong and we go from less wrong to more wrong.
Ideally one realizes this has occured before they publish their experiments/data/conclusions in a paper, but…
sa smith | September 23, 2011Just when you think XMRV-->anything could get none more dead, it manages to get deader.
When the possibility arose that there was a new pathogen circulating in humans, especially in the human blood supply, lots of labs from all over the world started looking for it.
Unfortunately, no one could find XMRV anywhere, except for very specific labs.
So the US government got the idea to:
1-- Collect patient samples from the labs that say they can find XMRV. Known positives.
2-- Collect negative samples from patients *everyone* in the study group, including the WPI, agree are negative. Known…
sa smith | September 22, 2011TODAY at 3 pm Eastern Time
Science magazine will be hosting a live-chat with a couple of San Fransisco Big Dogs-- Michael P. Busch and Jay Levy!
Live Chat: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome--Science and Controversy
<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcas…" >Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Science and Controversy</a>
Normally I would tune in just to see them roll their eyes at the stupid questions they are getting from the XMRV True Believer Brigade, but this is…
sa smith | September 7, 2011I have to give a huge round of applause to PLoS, specifically, PLoS ONE, and their handling of the XMRV fiasco.
Some of you might remember, early 2010 PLoS published the very first 'Umm... XMRV isnt there...' paper, Failure to Detect the Novel Retrovirus XMRV in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
To a scientist, it was interesting, but not that big of a deal. People publish conflicting findings all the time. Eventually we get to the bottom of it. Whatever. Its annoying when you are in it, but its kinda funny to outside observing scientists.
The reaction from the initial studys principle…