Researchers at Ohio State University have come up with a dependable way to use a finger-stick blood sample to detect fibromyalgia syndrome, a complex pain disorder that often is complicated to diagnose. The test could potentially reduce the wait for diagnosis by five years if it’s someday made available to primary care physicians.
“We’ve got really good evidence of a test that could be an important aid in the diagnosis of fibromyalgia patients,” said senior study author Tony Buffington, professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Ohio State. “We would like this to lead to an objective test for primary care doctors to use, which could produce a diagnosis as much as five years before it usually occurs.”
According to the Ohio State University news page, fibromyalgia makes itself hard to diagnose, leading patients to be in bad condition by the time they finally get a diagnosis. Symptoms of fibromyalgia include severe pain and fatigue, which are symptoms similar to many other conditions, so physicians tend to make sure these symptoms or not the effect of other conditions before diagnosing a patient with fibromyalgia.
Tony Buffington
Image courtesy of Ohio State University
“The importance of producing a faster diagnosis cannot be overstated, because patients experience tremendous stress during the diagnostic process. Just getting the diagnosis actually makes patients feel better and lowers costs because of reductions in anxiety,” said lead study author Kevin Hackshaw, associate professor of medicine at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center.
In addition to conducting a great deal of groundbreaking research like a better diagnosis for fibromyalgia, Ohio State University also receives a great deal of research funding. Ohio State received $185.3 million of research funding from the NSF and NIH in 2012. Of the $44.2 million in NSF funding, $6.9 million was given out to life science projects. The NSF-funded projects ranged across various disciplines in the life sciences, including cellular dynamics and function, plant genome research, neural systems, molecular biophysics, genetic mechanisms, systematics and biodiversity science, systems and synthetic biology, physiology and structural systems, and living stock collections. For a full list of projects receiving NSF funding, please visit the NSF website.
Lab suppliers interested in marketing life science solutions and university lab equipment in Ohio will find a well-funded market of science researchers, lab managers and purchasing agents at Ohio State University, according to 2012 NIH research funding statistics. Ohio State University received $141.1 million from the NIH in 2012. For a full list departments receiving funding organized by department name, number of awards received and total funding awarded, please visit the NIH website.
Kevin Hackshaw
Image courtesy of Ohio State University
Clearly, a great deal of research is being conducted on fibromyalgia diagnosis and in a number of other life science fields at Ohio State University. Given the wealth of NSF and NIH research funding, lab suppliers and biotechnology vendors may want to take advantage of Biotechnology Calendar, Inc.’s quickly approaching Columbus BioResearch Product Faire Event on August 8, 2013 to market their life science solutions and university lab equipment at Ohio life science marketing events. Last year, 280 attendees came to the Columbus BioResearch Product Faire™ Event, of which 186 were purchasing agents, professors and post docs, and 31 were lab managers. The attendees represented 35 different research buildings and 55 departments around campus.
Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. is a full-service science research marketing and events-planning company that has been organizing life science marketing events at top research institutions across the country for 20 years. For more information on our Columbus BioResearch Product Faire Event, or to view more funding statistics for Ohio State University, click on the button below. If you’re interested in marketing your life science solutions and university lab equipment at life science marketing events closer to home, we encourage you to view our 2013 calendar of events.