PAN Forum - Postscript #1
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OK Gang, here's the scoop on the future of PD research.
If you haven't read our Forum postings (Days 1,2,3) earlier this week, please
do.
 
The rest of the story......
NIH funding is the key to a cure for PD. Budget balancing will shrink the most
valuable, efficient, and productive operation the US federal government has ever
created.
 
On Thursday, after the Forum, 10 of us toured NINDS, where PD research is
conducted. Then 2 of us sat in on the packed Senate Appropriations Committee
hearing with all 25 NIH directors and at least 25 additional administrative
managers. We learned:
 - in the past few years NIH had to cut staff 25%
 - 12% of very promising NIH research goes unfunded every year,
   and a 10% budget reduction will deny 25% of the very best
   research proposals.
 - NIH employees cannot lobby congress, we and other affected
   organizations and citizens must lobby congress.
 - NINDS is the only lab in the world that can design a new
   PD drug in one lab, them take it down the hall and inject it
   into the brain of an animal to electronically test its
   effectiveness, then give it to a human in the next wing --
   all on the same floor.
 - we saw a new anti-oxidant being tested for the first time on
   a PD patient.
 - the passing of the Udall bill, or its equivalent in funding,
   could find the cure for PD.
 - any cuts in NIH funding will cost billions in future
   entitlement spending (SSI, welfare, food stamps, etc.)
 - medical research investment is about the only thing that the
   government does right.
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Handwritten testimonial letters to all 3 of your federal representatives is the
most effective force we have.
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Here's what the NIH is all about (from the NIH gopher)
 
INTRODUCTION
 
The NIH has a long history of funding the postdoctoral training of scientists
and physicians at universities and medical schools across the nation. In
addition, over 50,000 of the nation's finest physicians and scientists have
trained in the NIH laboratories in Bethesda or at affiliated campuses. Some have
remained at NIH and others have joined universities and other research
institutions. Whether at the NIH or not, the research of NIH-trained scientists
has been recognized internationally. It was in just such a manner that
collaborators Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein began the work during their
training at NIH in 1968 that was to earn them the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine to enter the laboratories on the NIH campus for tutelage by NIH senior
faculty.
 
The wide range of opportunities for postdoctoral training will be evident when
you examine the laboratory descriptions that follow. Also, the NIH Office of
Education is available to applicants who desire assistance in selecting those
training opportunities that are most compatible with their experience,
educational needs and professional objectives.
 
The NIH is committed to training biomedical researchers who will be active not
for 10 years, not for 15 years, not even for 20 years, but for a
lifetime--researchers who as part of the extended NIH family will be involved in
investigation and education throughout their professional careers. At no other
time have there existed more opportunities for young people to change the world.
Imagine arriving at work each day faced with the prospect of discovering
something completely new. Imagine learning something, understanding something
that no other human has understood before. Like great art, this work will lift
the human spirit. History will look back on these young people as the artisans
of the Age of Science and marvel at the creativity and insight marshaled against
human suffering. The NIH seeks to provide the tools for that job and the time to
explore.
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HISTORY
 
What was to become the National Institutes of Health started modestly in a small
attic room in the Marine Hospital in the village of Stapleton on Staten Island,
New York, in August, 1887. There, 27-year old Dr. Joseph Kinyoun set up his
one-person Laboratory of Hygiene as the federal government's first research
institution for identifying and searching for cures for the infectious diseases
that were ravaging its citizens. In 1891, after 4 years of intensive
investigation into the origin and causes of such epidemic diseases as cholera,
diphtheria, typhoid, smallpox, typhus, plague and tuberculosis, the Laboratory
of Hygiene needed more space, was moved to Washington, D.C. and was renamed the
Hygienic Laboratory. In Washington, members of the Hygienic Laboratory continued
to tackle public health problems. In order to investigate Rocky Mountain spotted
fever, researchers were sent to the Bitterroot Valley in Montana, the region
where the disease was first observed. Working conditions were quite primitive,
with researchers occupying tents and mountain cabins. During 45 years of
research, the disease was defined, its cause discovered, its carriers
identified, and its distribution understood. In the course of the work five
scientists contracted the disease and succumbed to it.
 
During this period, Dr. Joseph Goldberger of the Hygienic Laboratory also
initiated the first long-term epidemiological investigation of a chronic,
noncommunicable disease--pellagra--epidemic in the southern United States in the
early 1900's. This foray into nutritional research marked an expansion of the
research frontiers to be addressed by the laboratory.
 
Further change came to the Hygienic Laboratory in 1930 when its continued
progress and success convinced Senator Joseph E. Ransdell of Louisiana that
fundamental research could lead to cures for disease. Thus, the Ransdell Act was
passed by the Congress, reorganizing and expanding the Hygienic Laboratory and
changing its name to the National Institute of Health. Eight years later, in
1938, a continually growing National Institute of Health began its move from
Washington, D.C. to suburban Bethesda, Maryland.
 
World War II marked a change in the basic research conducted by the National
Institute of Health. The scope of investigation was broadened to include
fundamental medical research on major chronic diseases such as cancer,
cardiovascular disease, arthritis and mental illness. In 1948 four institutes
were created to support work on cardiac disease, dental disorders, infectious
diseases, and experimental biology and medicine. In that same year construction
was begun on the Clinical Center, a hospital with over 500 beds, where promising
therapies would be developed. This was also the year when the National Institute
of Health (singular) officially became the National Institutes of Health
(plural).
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NIH TODAY
 
Today, the National Institutes of Health consists of 16 institutes and
associated centers and divisions. It is one of the agencies of the Public Health
Service which, in turn, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. NIH is the federal government's primary agency for the support of
biomedical research and is the largest such organization in the world.
 
The intramural research of the 16 NIH institutes, centers, and support divisions
is conducted primarily on the 306-acre campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Nearly
4,000 staff members have doctoral degrees, including more than 2,200 with
graduate doctoral degrees, almost 1,600 with doctoral degrees in medicine, 80
with doctoral degrees in veterinary medicine, and about 45 with doctoral degrees
in dentistry. More than 200 staff members have more than one doctorate. In
addition, there are approximately 1,900 foreign scientists with doctoral degrees
working on campus. Of the total group of scientists approximately 1,200 hold
tenured appointments.
 
Three Nobel laureates work on the campus: Drs. Marshall W. Nirenberg, Julius
Axelrod, and D. Carleton Gajdusek. Dr. Nirenberg was honored in 1968 for
deciphering the genetic code and relating its details to protein synthesis. In
1970 Dr. Axelrod was cited for discoveries concerning the chemical transmitters
in nerve terminals, including the mechanisms for their storage, release, and
deactivation. Dr. Gajdusek received his Nobel Prize in 1976 for proving that
kuru, a fatal disease affecting the nervous system, is produced by infection
with a slow virus.
 
Three other scientists have received the Nobel Prize for work done while at NIH.
Dr. Arthur Kornberg received the award in 1959 for his research on the
mechanisms involved in the biological synthesis of DNA and RNA. In 1972 the
prize was awarded to Dr. Christian Anfinsen for his studies on ribonuclease in
which he demonstrated that the primary sequence or order of amino acids in a
protein determine the conformation or folding of the protein molecule. Four
years later Dr. Baruch Blumberg was honored for his discovery of the "Australia
antigen," a marker for hepatitis B.
 
Today, NIH scientists, with the help of a staff of over 3,000 technical
personnel, are involved in approximately 2,500 research projects and publish
more than 7,000 scientific articles per year.
 
In addition to over 50 buildings on the campus that house research  laboratories
or research support services, the NIH is home to the Warren Grant Magnuson
Clinical Center, the world's largest biomedical research hospital and ambulatory
care facility. The Clinical Center houses the clinical research beds of the
institutes, a number of the institutes' basic science and clinical research
laboratories, and a number of clinical center departments that provide patient
care services and, like the institutes, may offer residency, subspecialty and
research training opportunities.
 
The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), through its four intramural
programs and branches, helps NIH investigators plan, perform, and report their
research. Activities include scientific collaboration and provision of services
and products designed for specific research projects. The components of NCRR are
the Biomedical Engineering and Instrumentation Program, the NIH Library, the
Medical Arts and Photography Branch, and the Veterinary Resources Program.
 
The world famous National Library of Medicine is also located on the NIH campus.
Although it serves the entire country, the library's proximity makes it easily
accessible to NIH investigators. Holdings exceed 3 million items and include
books, journals, theses, pamphlets, prints, and microfilm. Through a system
called MEDLARS (the National Library of Medicine offers access to a number of
electronic biomedical databases including MEDLINE), the world's leading
bibliographic database of medical information. From computers all over campus
researchers can use MEDLINE( to retrieve bibliographic citations and abstracts
from over 3,000 journals issued over the last 20 years.
 
The institutes, centers, and divisions of the National Institutes of Health:
 
 1. NCI-   National Cancer Institute
 2. NEI-   National Eye Institute
 3. NHLBI- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
 4. NIA-   National Institute on Aging
 5. NIAAA- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
 6. NIAID- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
 7. NIAMS- National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal
           and Skin Diseases
 8. NICHD- National Institute of Child Health and Human
           Development
 9. NIDCD- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication
           Disorders
10. NIDR-  National Institute of Dental Research
11. NIDDK- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and
           Kidney Diseases
12. NIDA-  National Institute on Drug Abuse
13. NIEHS- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
14. NIGMS- National Institute of General Medical Sciences
15. NIMH-  National Institute of Mental Health
16. NINDS- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and
           Stroke
17. FIC-   John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced
           Study in the Health Sciences
18. NCNR-  National Center for Nursing Research
19. NCRR-  National Center for Research Resources
20. CC-    Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center
21. NLM-   National Library of Medicine
22. DCRT-  Division of Computer Research and Technology
23. DRG-   Division of Research Grants
24. Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research