Fibromyalgia Research Fund

The City of Hope Fibromyalgia Research Fund supports a specific research project on fibromyalgia that began around 2005 as a research study that enrolled patients from the fibromyalgia clinic of R. Paul St. Amand, M.D., collecting blood samples from FMS patients and their parents.

The protocol was approved by the City of Hope Institutional Review Board (IRB) in 2005 [protocol number 04186] and has continued to accrue patients and their parents ever since.  The title of the project is “Immunological and genetic analysis of autoinflammatory genes in fibromyalgia.”  Collection of blood samples allowed the investigators to analyze (1) the presence of certain proteins called cytokines in the blood that reflect the nature and degree of immune activation of that patient with FMS and (2) collect DNA from the immune cells in the blood and sequence genes that are associated with autoinflammation with the hope that mutations in those genes would correlate with the disease.

Furthermore, the investigators would determine if any mutations discovered were inherited at a higher frequency than expected, thus requiring the analysis of their parents’ genes.  To facilitate enrollment in this project, the investigators no longer require blood samples, but instead collect saliva for genetic analysis only.

Support this Program

This research is supported by private donations or donations made from local groups or foundations interested in FMS research.

Contributions to this research can be written to "City of Hope" and sent to Dr. John Shively at the address below and should indicate in the lower left information line, Fibromyalgia Research Fund.  Since City of Hope supports many different research activities, this will insure that your donation goes to support our work on FMS. Dr. Shively will send a letter in return that can be used to document a charitable contribution for FMS research.

Dr. John Shively
Department of Immunology
Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope
1500 East Duarte Rd.
Duarte, CA 91010

You may contact Dr. Shively directly:  jshively@coh.org

For further information about this fund, including how the donations are spent, research reported, etc., please email: fibromyalgia@coh.org