Updates from FHC Philanthropy Team

[MikeHerp]

Hey FHC HSV Cure Research Fund Raisers!

Got the following updates from FHC's philanthropy manager:

The below is their response to my question about the status and whether there are any updates.    In summary, the upcoming "update" will likely be a peer reviewed paper about Dr. Jerome's progress.  In that sense, the update might not contain a ton of new information, as it will likely reflect the video that we have already seen.  However, I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of interesting details that we didn't know and there may be some new information as well, depending on when they started writing the paper.  More generally, a peer reviewed paper will be another important milestone in the progress of this research--having peer reviewed publications documenting your progress is an essential step to eventually both get commercial funding and getting regulatory approval for human trials.  While the video we watched was awesome, it's just that--a video presentation.  Further, as she noted, the promotion of the fund raiser with the help of famed herpes blogger Emily, is still very much planned.

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Hi Mike,

It’s great to hear from you! I hope your summer has been wonderful as well. I am headed out on vacation next week, actually. 😊

I’ve been tracking the activity on the page and saw a recent gift of $2,500! Nice job!

I’m glad that the video has gotten some traction – the work presented there is exactly what Dr. Jerome’s paper is about. Feel free to share it. We are just waiting for peer review and journal publishing, which always takes longer than we would like it to. Our Communications team is ready to execute promotions with Emily as soon as we get the green light, and I can assure you that you will be the first person I notify! Are there any questions you have, or from the group, that I can answer in the meantime?

You guys are really hitting it out of the park with your efforts, and we can’t thank you enough!

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Now the below is their response to my follow up question posed by @T9000 about why this fund raiser is helpful and whether the funds can really be useful for the research.  Keeping in mind that this was a fund raiser which was started in response to our community's request, I think this is a solid response and I definitely intend to keep giving. Ideally, our fund raising efforts would exceed the NIH grant.

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Hi Mike,

That is a great question. Dr. Jerome does indeed have a grant to perform research from the NIH. However, it is my job to find private contributions such as yours that can:

a) fill in the gaps to provide additional support needed (for example, hiring an extra lab technician not covered by the grant)

b) allow Dr. Jerome the freedom to explore additional ideas/innovation that is more experimental (meaning, not funded by the grant)

c) allow Dr. Jerome to develop “proof of concept” from his ideas, which he would use to apply for additional NIH funding (which circles back to your example of it being difficult to find funding in the past). Big government funders don’t always support early research, but once they see good data, they often get really interested, which means private dollars can spark tens of millions in funding.

In a nutshell, private support jump-starts projects 6X faster than federal grants alone, and is a very valuable tool for our scientists! I can also assure you that everything raised through your fundraiser is going straight to Dr. Jerome’s lab for him to spend on the above as him team sees fit.

I’m happy to answer any other questions – feel free to share my information with the group.

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In summary, they are continuing to progress the research and the publication of the peer reviewed article, will be another important milestone towards the goal of an HSV cure. 

Further, their philanthropy team sets forth some compelling reasons why our continuing financial support of this research is important.  The fund raising may get a further boost once HSV blogger Emily is engaged to promote the cause.  In the meantime, keep it going guys! 

Edited August 22, 2019 by MikeHerp

[MiLoBeng]

Thanks for the update. Much appreciated. 🙂

[LightafterDarkness]

This is awesome @MikeHerp- thanks for the followup here and yes a peer review is a big AND essential step! Once approved its now "official" and importantly also gets more distribution across the scientific community which can spark other ideas.

I wonder if there is a way to note some of this detail in the HSV fundraiser page to give folks a sense on (A) the research itself (e.g., gene therapy) and (B) where the money can help go? Perhaps post peer review

[T9000]

Good to see the thing with Emily is still on the table. I didn't realize how much time this stuff takes.

[Hopeful heart]

19 hours ago, MikeHerp said:

Ideally, our fund raising efforts would exceed the NIH grant.

I hope you're right about this.  Would be nice to really drive progress. 

I think there are a lot of people who also do not look here frequently, but would contribute if they were aware of the research.  Would be nice to be able to reach more people with the right messaging in a tactful way.

[hopeful22]

Thank you for the update @MikeHerp

[MikeHerp]

On 8/22/2019 at 6:12 PM, LightafterDarkness said:

This is awesome @MikeHerp- thanks for the followup here and yes a peer review is a big AND essential step! Once approved its now "official" and importantly also gets more distribution across the scientific community which can spark other ideas.

I wonder if there is a way to note some of this detail in the HSV fundraiser page to give folks a sense on (A) the research itself (e.g., gene therapy) and (B) where the money can help go? Perhaps post peer review

That’s not a bad idea. Hmm, let’s think about that.