Blastocystis Research Foundation Announces Successful Completion of the First Phase of the Oregon Blastocystis Phylogenetics Project

06.10.2007   5:08 PM PST

CORVALLIS, OR, June 10 - The Blastocystis Foundation announced the successful completion of the first phase of the Oregon Blastocystis Phylogenetics Project.  The project's goals are to compare the genotypes of Blastocystis isolates from symptomatic Blastocystis patients to those published in prior studies.  The goal is to determine if the same types of Blastocystis associated with illness in Oregon have also been associated with illness in prior research.

In the first phase of the project, volunteers were obtained from the community.  These consisted of individuals with physician-diagnosed symptomatic Blastocystis infection.  An additional group of individuals with undiagnosed lower gastrointestinal illness with sudden adult onset and unknown cause was included in the study.

"We had a great response - over 20 people responded, and we could have gotten many more if we kept the study open.  But we are focusing on analyzing the data we have and submitting it to a journal,"  noted Foundation director Kenneth Boorom.

BRF's research partners are very pleased with the genetics data obtained to date, and indicate that they plan to submit a research paper in the near future.