 |
 |
Bush Selects a Top Official At Johns Hopkins to Head NIH http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44372-2002Mar5.html By Ceci Connolly and Dana Milbank Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, March 6, 2002; Page A01 President Bush plans to nominate Elias Zerhouni, executive vice dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, as director of the National Institutes of Health, according to sources familiar with the decision. The choice of Zerhouni, which could be announced by the end of this week, would conclude a search for someone to preside over the nation's premier biomedical research agency, which has been without a permanent director for more than two years. Sources said Zerhouni met the administration's twin goals of a respected scientist who could live within Bush's ethical constraints on controversial research involving cloning and embryonic stem cells. If confirmed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, Zerhouni would inherit a huge department at a pivotal moment. The NIH employs more than 15,000 people on its sprawling, 300-acre Bethesda campus and funds more than 2,000 biomedical projects in the United States and abroad involving health problems ranging from cancer and heart disease to drug abuse and mental illness. Bush has promised to increase NIH funding to $27 billion this year – completing a plan begun by President Bill Clinton to double the NIH budget – as the agency confronts a range of challenges, including renewed attention to the threat of bioterrorism and scientific advances in genetics, cloning and stem cells that many say are racing far ahead of cultural mores. The NIH has foundered in the two years without a director since the departure of the highly respected, politically adroit Harold Varmus, say several prominent scientists inside and outside the NIH. Many top researchers have left in recent months, including the directors of six of the 27 institutes. Zerhouni, 50, was out of the country yesterday and could not be reached for comment. He was described by colleagues as an imaginative scientist who was trained as a radiologist, focused most of his research on technology and later became a businesslike but creative and highly skilled administrator. From the start, the emotional debate over cutting-edge biomedical research and abortion politics has been a significant factor in the search for a new NIH director. Bush initially told lawmakers he wanted to wait until he decided whether to spend federal money on research on embryonic stem cells, which is controversial because it involves the destruction of human embryos. Later, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan diverted the administration's attention. In recent months, Anthony S. Fauci, a prominent AIDS researcher with close ties to the Bush family, had emerged as a leading candidate. But yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said the White House had rejected Fauci, a move for which conservative activists took credit because Fauci was deemed "insufficiently pro-life." Congressional sources said that Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) led the fight against Fauci when the normally talkative scientist failed to offer vocal support for strict limits on research. "The biggest reason is Fauci would not come out and say where he stood on 'life' issues," said a source familiar with the discussion. Some conservatives reached last night were not familiar with Zerhouni. But Deal Hudson, a Catholic magazine publisher with close ties to the White House, said: "If it turns out to be Zerhouni, I would be comfortable with that. "He has put in writing his support of the Brownback bill on cloning," Hudson said, referring to legislation that would outlaw scientific research on material from cloned human embryos. "That's a major signal he's giving that he wants to support this administration's perspective on biomedical ethics." Zerhouni has most recently devoted his energy to developing a multimillion-dollar Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins. The institute will pursue "research that not long ago would have been marked as science fiction," according to its Web site. That would include experiments on stem cells taken from human embryos. Judging by his enthusiasm for the new institute, some of Zerhouni's colleagues speculated he would want to pursue stem cell research beyond the tight parameters set by Bush in August. The president announced he would support government-funded work only on the approximately 60 cell lines developed before he made his decision, a compromise many scientists fear is too limiting. "As long as he is not party to any effort to go beyond the existing stem cell lines, then he is well within the president's guidelines," Hudson said. Myron Weisfeldt, chairman of medicine at Johns Hopkins and a collaborator with Zerhouni on research projects, said that although "it was his decision to put significant resources into understanding stem cell biology," the move was made "with the understanding" that eventually researchers would not have to rely on embryos but instead could use cells from bone marrow. Weisfeldt and others described Zerhouni as a solid, creative scientist who has pushed Hopkins in new directions. "He's largely responsible for the decision to create a human genetics institute here," Weisfeldt said. "Within the radiology community, he has an unblemished and stellar career both from an academic and managerial perspective," said Howard Forman, a radiology professor at the Yale Medical School. Edward Shapiro, a professor of medicine at Hopkins who also worked with Zerhouni, described him as "an innovative researcher and an extremely clear thinker." Weisfeldt said Zerhouni is "businesslike" in his demeanor and has a knack for recruiting talented people. "He's not a basic scientist, but he appreciates basic science," Weisfeldt said. "He's a translational scientist," which means translating basic research into clinical applications. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn