NIH

If you're in Massachusetts, there's a special election for U.S. Senate tomorrow, and it's much closer than it should be--the Republican Scott Brown (who is horrid--who votes to eliminate tax breaks and aid for 9/11 emergency responders?) might actually win. There are several reasons why I'm voting for Coakley*: 1) Republicans hate science. Massachusetts received $2.25 billion in NIH funding alone in 2008 and another $400 million from NSF. That's equivalent to ten percent of the MA state budget. As someone who works for USDA once told me, "Republicans cut my budget, Democrats increase it…
ScienceBlogling Drugmonkey has some good info about the new shortened NIH R01 proposal. There are a lot of interesting comments over there, so I suggest you head on over and read the whole thing. What I wonder about is if the shorter format will end up 'compressing' the proposal scores, and consequently, result in more 'ties' that have to be broken by the NIH staff. Let me explain. In many ways, proposals are like admissions to highly selective colleges and universities. For every one accepted, there are one to three that would be equally qualified. Sure, some are so obviously qualified…
Let's see if I can remember how to do this blogging thing.... Proposal 1: We started out doing it by the book. Picked a good research topic, and then found the appropriate RFP, with a deadline comfortably in the future. We had weekly brainstorming meetings to refine our research objectives and were just beginning to write some text, when something shook us. Suddenly our experimental design didn't seem quite so clever or practical anymore. We spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out new ways to approach the problem, and debating whether we were really going to go after the RFP after all.…
With flu season in the northern hemisphere looming and H1N1 cutting a nasty swath through good portions of the southern hemisphere's current flu season, attention is being turned to the non-existent but hoped-for vaccine against swine flu. Yesterday we discussed the problem of pinning pandemic planning on a vaccine. That's planning for the best, not hoping for the best. There are a lot of uncertainties regarding whether an unadorned egg-based vaccine -- the bulk of the vaccine now in development -- will be sufficient, available in time or even effective. But those problems just scratch the…
Science and religion bicker in the backseat. Collin Purrington / Creative CommonsWith Francis Collins' nomination as head of the National Institutes of Health I felt it was appropriate to bring up Sam Harris' letter to the journal Nature objecting to what he called "high-minded squeamishness" on the part of the editors for their praise of his book The Language of God. In the book Collins states: As believers, you are right to hold fast to the concept of God as Creator; you are right to hold fast to the truths of the Bible; you are right to hold fast to the conclusion that science offers no…
I haven't had time to comment on it until now, but one of the local issues rattling around Boston and Massachusetts has been the potential demise of The Boston Globe. Since the NY Times Corporation will receive bids for The Boston Globe tomorrow, it seemed like a good time to reflect on how The Globe wound up losing $50 million last year. The general consensus is that, as a business, The Globe is failing. To the extent people have tried to figure out why The Globe is failing, the usual suspects have been trotted out: labor costs, the recession, the across the board decline in newspaper…
When the NIH released its draft guidelines on human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research in late April, they were open to a 30-day period of public comment before the formulation of the final rules. Today, the NIH has released its final guidelines (pdf). Not much has changed, so there's not really much to say that I haven't already. The bad news is that the fairly restrictive nature of the rules was maintained (i.e. no federal funds for hESC lines derived from embryos generated specifically for research), but the good news is that the government didn't cave into some fairly outlandish requests…
Yesterday's article by Gina Kolata about cancer research mistakes a symptom--caution due to a perceived lack of funding--for the disease, which is the symbiosis between academia and the NIH. Don't get me wrong, a lot of research should involve academics. But the priorities of NIH have become overwhelmed by the priorities of academia. I think Kolata's dead on target with this part of her article (italics mine): One major impediment, scientists agree, is the grant system itself. It has become a sort of jobs program, a way to keep research laboratories going year after year with the…
I'll have more to say about this tomorrow, but I wanted to draw your attention to an article in today's NY Times that is critical of cancer research by Gina Kolata. Here's a snippet: Many other grants involve biological research unlikely to break new ground. For example, one project asks whether a laboratory discovery involving colon cancer also applies to breast cancer. But even if it does apply, there is no treatment yet that exploits it. The cancer institute has spent $105 billion since President Richard M. Nixon declared war on the disease in 1971. The American Cancer Society, the…
What was Italy thinking? And, for that matter, NIH? From Science: The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is gearing up to begin a review of about 1,000 biomedical research grant applications for the Italian government, an experimental collaboration that comes at an inconvenient time for the US funding agency. The outsourcing agreement was made last year at the request of Ferruccio Fazio, now Italy's deputy minister for health in the welfare ministry, who is looking to improve the department's peer-review system for awarding competitive research grants... Most biomedical research funds…
Recently, Newsweek published an article by Sharon Begley that claimed that the conflict between high-profile publication and quick release of medically-important data has led to delays in medical advancements (ScienceBlogling Orac takes down her particular example). But Begley is confusing a symptom, publication practices, with a much larger problem: incentives. What do I mean by incentives? Last week, I described how the data release policies of large and small sequencing centers differ due to distinct funding incentives: the larger centers are paid to rapidly produce lots of high…
I realize that the typical format for blogging is to find something that pisses you off and then rant about it, but I actually like the recent workshop report by NHGRI, "The Future of DNA Sequencing at the National Human Genome Research Institute." (pdf file) While I'll have more to say about the report overall, I liked the section about the Human Microbiome Project (the goal of the HMP is to use sequencing technologies to understand how the microbes that live on us and in us affect health and disease). I was happy to see that NHGRI still thinks that it has a role in funding the HMP. It's…
In the view of New Scientist journalist Amanda Gefter, The Discovery Institute, high priests of Creationism as an allegedly rational enterprise, aren't really worried about Richard Dawkins. Presumably he's just a great fund raising device for them. The one who really scares the BeJesus out of them is biologist Francis Collins, the evangelical Christian rumored to be Obama's choice as next Director of NIH: The Discovery Institute - the Seattle-based headquarters of the intelligent design movement - has just launched a new website, Faith and Evolution, which asks, can one be a Christian and…
You might have about the NIH Challenge Grants funded by the stimulus package. The grants are for two years, with a total (direct and indirect costs) of $1 million (there are other grants available too, but this post isn't about those grants). There will be roughly 200-300 funded grants. And I've heard that there are 27,000 applications. Yep, you read that right. And I don't think this number is too much of an exaggeration (maybe three-fold, maybe not)--I have good reason to think that Massachusetts General Hospital alone submitted hundreds of grants (one number I've heard is 800). Most…
Following through with President Obama's executive order issued March 9, Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells (link to PDF), the NIH has released a draft of guidelines revising the NIH's position on how it may fund "responsible, scientifically worthy human stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cell research." The funding only extends to human embryonic stem cells derived from embryos created in excess at fertility clinics. ScienceBlogger Nick Anthis from The Scientific Activist views the creation of these guidelines as a "significant…
We're really fortunate here at Terra Sigillata World Headquarters to have a strong, dedicated readership. But I'm always tickled when we attract new readers and attention to the views we express here. Late yesterday I received a very nice e-mail from Andrew Plemmons Pratt, Managing Editor of Science Progress, a blog of the well-known liberal think tank, Center for American Progress. In his post, Don't Bury the Next Generation of Researchers Under Billions in NIH Funding, Andrew notes my enthusiasm in our 23 Feb post for being sure that junior investigators already in the pipeline not be…
Last weekend, a letter from acting NIH director Raynard S. Kington was distributed to NIH investigators and began making the rounds in the blogosphere as well. The letter detailed specific plans for the $8.2 billion of NIH funding included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus package. ScienceBloggers immediately expressed fear that a dramatic increase in funding could lead to a repeat of the 1990s "lost generation" crisis, when young scientists attracted by generous grants found themselves without career opportunities when funding failed to keep pace with demand. A lively…
For my DC peeps: I've been helping one of my colleagues with an event for college journalists, to be held next Friday at NIH (Bethesda, MD). It's a roundtable discussion on the challenges of covering addiction issues; scheduled guests include Lisa Stark of ABC News, Lauran Neergaard from the AP, and Jacqueline Duda of the WaPo, as well as scientists from NIH, NIDA, the University of Maryland and the University of Michigan. The event is free and open to college students at regional institutions of higher learning. There is still some space left, so if you know any DC-area college students who…
...at one point, anyway. It was good to see Pelosi and the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party hold the line against the Blue Dogs. Anyway, here are some science-, health-, and education-related stimulus increases: Pell grants for higher education: $15,840,000,000 School improvement grants awarded based on the number of homeless students identified in a state: $70,000,000 Energy efficiency and conservation block grants: $3,200,000,000 Weatherization Assistance Program (increases maximum income level and maximum assistance): $5,000,000,000 Advanced batteries manufacturing, including…
From Speaker Pelosi's office: Transform our Economy with Science and Technology:  To secure America's role as a world leader in a competitive global economy, we are renewing America's investments in basic research and development, in training students for an innovation economy, and in deploying new technologies into the marketplace.  This will help businesses in every community succeed in a global economy.Investing in Scientific Research (More than $15 Billion)Provides $3 billion for the National Science Foundation, for basic research in fundamental science and engineering - which spurs…