Whittemore Peterson Institute

The Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) is a nonprofit center based in Reno, Nevada, dedicated to the support of those with a spectrum of neuro-immune diseases (NIDs), including myalgic encephalomyelitis and fibromyalgia, via research, education, and advocacy. It was founded by Annette Whittemore, in 2005, in honor of an impacted family member and Dr Daniel Peterson, the doctor who diagnosed and treated her.

Notable studies

 * 2009, Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

XMRV
An October 2009 paper by Vincent Lombardi, Francis Ruscetti, Jaydip Das Gupta, Max Pfost, Kathryn S. Hagen, Daniel Peterson, Sandra Ruscetti, Rachel K. Bagni, Cari Petrow-Sadowski, Bert Gold, Michael Dean, Robert Silverman Judy Mikovits entitled "Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" claimed to have found a link between chronic fatigue syndrome and the presence of the retrovirus. The paper's primary authors were at that time based at the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) in Reno, Nevada, United States. The WPI soon began offering a controversial commercial XMRV testing service.

Other labs around the world were unable to detect XMRV in their patient samples. In July 2011 the journal issued an editorial expression of concern about the paper.

The paper was fully retracted in December 2011 by the journal.

One of the key scientists involved in efforts to clarify the situation surrounding XMRV, and eventually to debunk the science, was Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York.

Doctor Mikovits has maintained her view that XMRV is a public health risk and documents those views in her book Plague with co-author Kent Heckenlively.

Mainstream science considers XMRV to be a laboratory artefact and not a threat to human health or related to chronic fatigue syndrome.

Online presence

 * Wikipedia - Nevada Center for Biomedical Research
 * Webpage - Nevada Center for Biomedical Research
 * Facebook - Nevada Center for Biomedical Research

Notable people

 * Annette Whittemore
 * Daniel Peterson
 * Judy Mikovits
 * Vincent Lombardi