Free Webcast Available for Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine Conference, Jan. 26

NSU will be hosting a conference on Saturday, Jan. 26 about the upcoming opening of the NSU College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine. The conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Knight Auditorium of the Carl DeSantis Building on NSU’s main campus. It will feature physicians and researchers speaking about the clinical practice and research that will be conducted at the new $5 million Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine.

With a grand opening on Tuesday, Feb. 12, the Institute will be the only one of its kind in the nation that will treat patients with conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), Gulf War Illness (GWI) and other neuro immune conditions, as well as conduct basic and clinical research under one roof in this field.

The conference on Sunday, Jan. 26, called CFS/ME & Gulf War Illness 2013 – A Celebration of Hope & Progress, is opened to the public. Cost is a $25 minimum donation, which includes lunch and refreshments. To register, please visit this website and fill out the registration form: http://www.nova.edu/nim/index.html#events. The conference will also be broadcast live through an NSU webcast. It’s free for the first 200 people to register at this link: https://www.nova.edu/webforms/nim/index.html

Once you have registered, the webcast link will be e-mailed to you. For more information, please e-mail grandopening@cfsclinic.com

The Institute will also be the first in the nation to study neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders such as CFS/ME, GWI, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis using the newest genomic techniques.  By studying individual genes and what they code for, the Institute scientists will better understand the cause and point to new ways to treat these complex disorders. The idea is to challenge the patient with something like exercise and measure which genes turn on or off and to better understand the cause of relapse and illness persistence and find points of intervention. This important basic research will provide answers that will help scientists develop new pharmaceutical medications to treat these illnesses.

Housed at NSU’s main campus, the Institute will have research laboratories, the patient clinic, a clinical research unit, faculty offices and conference facilities. It’s designed to put together multiple core medical and scientific disciplines in one place: clinicians, educators and researchers in the areas of genomics, virology, immunology, cellular biology, computational biology and therapeutic modeling.

“We have created a one-of-a-kind think tank that will become the leading neuro immune medicine institute of its kind in the United States,” said the Institute’s director Nancy Klimas, M.D., who is one of the world’s leading researchers and clinicians in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). “It will be a place to coordinate cutting edge thinking and research, train new practitioners, and offer the highest quality clinical care for a hugely underserved population. We are thrilled to take this giant step forward in the field of CFS/ME and Gulf War Illness care and research.”

The Institute is part of NSU’s initiative to bring world renowned researchers to campus.  The Schemel Family Foundation has generously donated $2 million to establish an additional endowed professorship, the Schemel Professor for Neuro Immune Medicine in neuroimmunology, at the Institute to work directly with Klimas. In addition, a beautiful patient waiting area was generously contributed by the Maroone Family.