PAN Forum - Postscript #1 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Handwritten testimonial letters to all 3 of your federal representatives is the most effective force we have. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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). ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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