The Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease (WPI), well known for a retracted study published by Science in 2009 that linked a mouse retrovirus to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), will continue to receive funding from the U.S. government for a $1.5 million, 5-year grant to study the disease.
WPI, based in Reno, Nevada, could have lost the grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) because in September, it fired Judy Mikovits, the principal investigator on the award. WPI subsequently filed a lawsuit against Mikovits for allegedly misappropriating property, and she also became subject to a related criminal case that led to her arrest and brief jailing. Mikovits has maintained her innocence and both cases still are in the courts. Harvey Whittemore and his wife, Annette, who founded WPI, are defendants in a lawsuit filed against them by his former business partners who allege that the couple inappropriately used funds from a holding company he co-owned to support their institute. They have denied those charges.
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