Clongen Labs: Press Release Update

[tcmgpt13]

A brief press release describing new services as well as a new website at Clongen Laboratories (at one point Dr. Kilani was researching Morgellons although this does not appear to be a current research project). There is some parasite testing being done at this lab which also does lyme testing with REAL TIME PRC (shortening time so doctors may obtain laboratory results more quickly to initiate needed treatments for infectious diseases of all sorts). According to an article on the website LymeMD which was quoted in an earlier article posted on another thread Kilani has said that lyme disease could be sexually transmitted:

GERMANTOWN, Md., Nov. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its inception in 1999, Clongen Laboratories, a CLIA licensed facility with a Maryland Clinical Laboratory license, has focused on improving human health by refining diagnostic tests for infectious diseases and providing contract research services for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, government, and academic institutions.

The advanced molecular diagnostics technology Clongen Laboratories uses in their Clinical Diagnostics Division offers a powerful tool in the screening of a wide range of infectious diseases. This allows healthcare practitioners to better diagnose and treat their patients. One of the main areas of focus in the Clinical Diagnostics Division is tick borne illness testing; however, Clongen Laboratories also offers a large number of other assays, some not offered anywhere else in the US. The technology platform Clongen Laboratories uses in the Clinical Diagnostics Division is Real Time PCR. According to Ahmed Kilani, PhD, founder and director of Clongen Labs, this platform allows Clongen Laboratories to rapidly detect infectious agents in clinical samples at very low copy numbers. The clinician receives laboratory test results in less than a week from the time of sample receipt. This quick turnaround offers physicians the opportunity to manage clinical cases without delay.

Clongen Laboratories contract research services are performed under GLP and GMP conditions and encompass a wide range of assays available to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, government and academic institutions. Services include sterility testing, Mycoplasma detection and elimination, Endotoxin testing and removal, and many others. In recent years, due to the increased risk of bio-warfare agents, Clongen Laboratories developed rapid real time PCR based assays for the detection of all Bio-warfare select agents listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The contract research division has grown over the years and now covers a large number of established assays; many are required for lot release of biological and pharmaceutical products.

The company has been enjoying steady growth and will soon obtain licensure in five additional states. In addition, Clongen Laboratories is establishing satellite facilities in several other states. According to Dr. Kilani, the mission of Clongen Laboratories, which is to promote improved health through better diagnostic testing and research, has remained consistent since the laboratory was established.

Clongen Laboratories began with less than 10 assay offerings. Today, the clinical diagnostics division offers more than 250 assays for the detection of infectious agents using state of the art technology. In addition to the Molecular Diagnostics offerings, Clongen Laboratories has a licensed routine Microbiology laboratory for the culture and identification of bacteria, yeast and fungi.

Recent changes to the company's website reflect changes to the organizational structure of the laboratory. There are two sub-sites for the two business units, the Clinical Diagnostics Division and the Contract Research Division, which are physically and administratively separate. The two business units perform distinct functions and can be seen at

Clongen.com

Contact: Ahmed Kilani, Ph.D., President and Laboratory Director at 301-916-0173 or e-mail akil @ clongen.com SOURCE Clongen Laboratories

Tuesday, November 15, 2011 12:57 PM pressrelated.com/press-release-clongen-laboratories-announces-formation-of-separate-clinical-diagnostics-and-contract-research-div.html

[Jo]

Thanks for the heads up TC. He's taken down the page on Morgellons, which added credibility to the whole research area, even if the outcomes were few.

I had sad news today of a Dr David Freed who I saw twice. He was a member of the British society of ecological medicine and was working on the similarities between morgellons and rheumatic patches - he died sudddenly in August according to the letter.

I feel like we are losing more scientific advocates than we are gaining..

Jo

[MeToo]

I'm really sorry to hear that Jo. I wish you and his family well.

[tcmgpt13]

I am very sorry to hear about your doctor Jo. It is always difficult to lose those who have helped us personally with this illness. I am interested though in what a rheumatic patch is. Do you know? Interesting to hear. Sad though to once again learn that we have lost a person who was thinking outside the box about Morgellons. I agree it does seem lately that we are losing more brilliant people who were looking into Morgellons than are available to replace them. Still we have to have faith it will all work out.

I thought the information about Clongen Labs as a whole was very encouraging even though the Morgellons information has been deleted. I can understand their point for doing it as can you I am sure. They appear to have branched out a great deal these days in what they are testing. Hopefully some of the research that is being done in our behalf will someday be aided by such a lab since now they have one area of the company totally dedicated to helping doctors detect infections in their patients. Crossing my fingers anyway.

Editing to add this link to an article by Dr. Freed about rheumatic patches. Fascinating information. Knowing that many find reading long articles tiring I have quoted here just a few of the paragraphs from this long article that caught my attention. I really enjoyed reading the section of the article under clinical manifestations of rheumatic patch. Wow, so much of what he describes is associated with areas of the body involving morgellons pain and morgellons lesions. Thank you Jo for mentioning this and I now can understand the loss to Morgellons research. Adding information about the rheumatic patch to some of the symptoms found in chronic lyme disease--well a lot to think about. Just glancing now at the main page of Dr. Freed's website. Impressive:

'The late Dr W.W. Fox, during his long clinical lifetime (over 60 years in medical practice), followed up rheumatic patients, with and without arthritis, for decades (4). He observed, in every case, the tender patches in soft tissues that we have been considering. Particularly interested in low back pain, he passed.long needles down through the skin in the lumbar area, down to the psoas, in several patients, seeking the area of maximum tenderness. The response was startling. The main pain was not in the muscles, not in the bones, not in the joints, not even in the bursae or ligaments. It was in the skin, and the loose connective tissue (superficial fascia) just under the skin.

It is astonishing that an organ as obvious and exposed as the skin seems somehow to escape notice most easily. This is probably because rheumatic patches are in the dermis. The dermis is a mesodermal organ while the epidermis is ectodermal. The epidermis has a very rich nerve supply and exquisitely accurate touch localisation, whereas the dermis, like other mesodermal structures, has neither. Sensations arising from the dermis are interpreted by the brain only as 'deep to the surface'.

To the casual eye the affected area of skin looks normal. On closer examination there may be a patch of tiny 'thread veins', expanded capillaries, to be seen. There may also be one or more 'skin tags' - benign papillomata - whose histology is the same as the underlying rheumatic patch (see below) and which is surprisingly tender when you tweak it. When there is a rheumatic patch overlying the back of the neck at C7 level, there may be an exaggerated forward curvature of the neck (the so-called 'dowager's hump/). A rheumatic patch in the scalp may cause the overlying tuft of hair to stand at a different angle from surrounding hairs. But most of the time rheumatic patches are invisible; the abnormality can be felt by the educated fingers of the enquiring examiner, but not seen. Occasionally the patient knows exactly where the rheumatic patch is, and can place his finger on the spot, but this is rare. For most of the time he is unaware of its existence, and is astonished when your pinching fingers make him yelp.'

drdavidfreed.co.uk/sc-rheumaticpatches.html

quote=Jo;86853]Thanks for the heads up TC. He's taken down the page on Morgellons, which added credibility to the whole research area, even if the outcomes were few.

I had sad news today of a Dr David Freed who I saw twice. He was a member of the British society of ecological medicine and was working on the similarities between morgellons and rheumatic patches - he died sudddenly in August according to the letter.

I feel like we are losing more scientific advocates than we are gaining..

Jo[/quote]

[hadrum]

This is the second story i've heard about a researcher fishing in unfavorable territory dying "SUDDENLY!" You ever think maybe there's something to that?? I do!

[tcmgpt13]

I think many of the doctors who have different theories and decide to look beyond what the medical establishment believes about various chronic illnesses may have had the same illnesses they treated in their patients. If that is true then these doctors' internal organs could have been weakened by these various diseases. Also I doubt that most of these men were that young. Certainly Dr. Harvey had been very sick with lyme disease and he was over seventy. I have to feel that perhaps his interest in M was piqued somewhat by what he himself might have been experiencing or that perhaps his wife was (she had been very sick with lyme too). No way to prove that theory of course, but then there is also no way to prove that something terrible has happened to every research doctor who dies suddenly. I suppose we could read into it and insist we are right in our beliefs and assumptions, but at the end of the day it will all boil down to that, beliefs and assumptions but no proof whatsoever that death was anything beyond a normally caused sudden death.

quote=hadrum;87348]This is the second story i've heard about a researcher fishing in unfavorable territory dying'SUDDENLY!' You ever think maybe there's something to that?? I do![/quote]