 |
Summary of the Open Session of the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council Meeting—September 9, 2004
- NIH Roadmap Update
- NIGMS Funding of New Research Grant Proposals
- Update: Large Grant Evaluation Efforts
- Roadmap National Centers for Biomedical Computing: Progress Report
- Concept Clearance: E. coli Informatics Initiative
- Progress Report: Alliance for Cellular Signaling
- Concept Clearance: Program Announcement for NRSA F32/33 Fellowships in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research
NOTE: Until the official minutes of the September 9-10, 2004, meeting of the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council (NAGMSC) are posted on this Web site, we are providing this summary of the major topics covered during the Council's open session on September 9.
NIH Roadmap Update
The first large set of initiatives from the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research will be funded by the end of this fiscal year. NIGMS is the lead institute on three initiatives for this Council meeting, namely the National Centers for Biomedical Computing (RM-04-003), the Centers for Innovation in Membrane Protein Production (RM-04-009), and the Curriculum Development Award in Interdisciplinary Research (RM-04-007), in addition to the Development of High Resolution Probes for Cellular Imaging program (RM-04-001) that was presented to the Council in May. The status of these initiatives, as well as the guiding principles for the Roadmap for fiscal years FY05, FY06, and beyond, were discussed. For more information on the NIH Roadmap, see http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/.
NIGMS Funding of New Research Grant Proposals
Over the past 2 years, NIGMS has received a large, unanticipated increase in the number of new grant applications. NIGMS has analyzed the applicant pool responsible for this increase, and the majority of these applications are from new investigators (those individuals who have not previously received significant NIH funding). A significant fraction of these are from fields (as judged by departmental affiliation) such as engineering and physics that have not traditionally constituted a large portion of the NIGMS portfolio. The Institute has also analyzed the likelihood of success for these new applicants. Applications from new investigators have a larger likelihood of success due to Institute policies that have favored such applications, even in light of less favorable priority scores.
Update: Large Grant Evaluation Efforts
The NAGMS Council Large Grants Working Group was formed to guide the assessment of large NIGMS grant mechanisms and to develop recommendations to the full Council for their use in reannouncing existing programs or considering future initiatives. The group's charge was to review the original rationales and goals of existing large grant programs that distinguish them from other grant mechanisms, suggest the types of information required to assess these rationales and the extent to which goals are being met, and recommend an appropriate assessment process. This group had its first meeting just prior to the May 2004 Council meeting and came up with several recommendations. First, the group recommends program assessment for each large grant, based on annual reports summarizing progress and original goals, site visits and annual workshops/symposia, and annual meetings at NIH. Second, the group recommends that assessment address topics such as original proposal content and its measurable outcomes; justification for scope, comprehensive nature, or complexity of the proposal; success of training and community outreach; and whether the program has transformed other areas beyond those initially supported. Third, the group recommends that the process for assessment could take the form of evaluation teams including members of NAGMS Council, experts from within the respective field, and scientists from slightly outside the disciplinary area. Together with NIGMS staff, the evaluation teams will offer recommendations on whether the current programs are successful and will develop a process to help decide which programs should be twilighted, converged, or continued. Such information may also guide whether new programs might be launched. Fourth, the group decided that evaluations should occur in the fourth year with a 1-year phase-down or recommendation for continuation.
Roadmap National Centers for Biomedical Computing: Progress Report
Dr. Eric Jakobsson reported on progress toward creation of the National Centers for Biomedical Computing as part of the NIH Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Roadmap. The awardees from the first round of competition will be announced by the NIH Office of the Director in late September. At approximately the same time, a funding announcement will be released for the second round of competition and for smaller projects to collaborate with the national centers. Dr. Jakobsson noted that after the establishment of the second round of centers and the first round of collaborating projects, the major components of the National Program of Excellence in Biomedical Computing will be in place. This program will comprise a web of collaborating large and small projects directed toward the goal of providing all the stakeholders in biomedicine—researchers, teachers, students, policymakers, practitioners, and administrators—with a computing environment sufficiently powerful such that computing inefficiencies, defects, or gaps will not be a rate-limiting step to progress. Dr. Jakobsson stressed the importance of evaluating the outcomes of this Roadmap initiative in the context of national biomedical computing needs.
Concept Clearance: E. coli Informatics Initiative
The NAGMS Council discussed a proposed initiative to provide support for the development, continuous upgrading, curation, and maintenance of an integrated data resource for Escherichia coli K-12. Justification for the initiative was provided in a white paper prepared by a representative committee of E. coli researchers. Dr. James Anderson pointed out that E. coli K-12 is the best understood organism; the source for much of our information on molecular biology, metabolic pathways, regulation, and biochemistry; and an organism that continues to provide new insights on cell function. Because of the central role of E. coli K-12 in providing both historical and ongoing understanding of basic biological processes, there is a pressing need to bring together the large amount of existing knowledge and rapidly accumulating genome-wide data, and to make this information usable by the larger biomedical community. Although a number of databases currently focus on or include E. coli K-12 data and bioinformatics tools, significant gaps exist in what they cover, the databases are generally not well integrated, and there is no single point of user entry. The goal of the proposed resource is to address these problems and to provide usability and credibility across the broadest possible spectrum of user communities. Dr. Anderson requested, and received, Council approval for developing the described resource in order to leverage the large Federal investment in E. coli K-12.
Progress Report: Alliance for Cellular Signaling
Dr. Alfred G. Gilman, Chair of the Steering Committee of the Alliance for Cellular Signaling (AfCS) glue grant, provided a general summary and progress report of the multidisciplinary, multi-institutional AfCS program. The AfCS hopes to answer overarching questions about cell signaling and catalyze research in this area. All AfCS data are posted and disseminated promptly and publicly on the project's Web site http://www.signaling-gateway.org/. Dr. Gilman described the AfCS structure and noted accomplishments over the past year, emphasizing the ligand screen project and the "Focus on X Modules" (FXM) project. Focused on a small section of a cell's signaling network, the FXM project serves as a test bed to explore the best strategies for dissecting and modeling complex cellular signaling. Dr. Gilman also discussed interactions between AfCS and the signaling research community and plans for the future.
Concept Clearance: Program Announcement for NRSA F32/33 Fellowships in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research
The availability of human embryonic stem cells (HESC) for federally funded research affords a unique opportunity for investigators to use these cells to address research questions of interest to the mission of the NIH. Although HESC have great potential to yield important information on the fundamental properties of cells and disease processes, remarkably little is known about the properties of HESC that distinguish them from more differentiated cells. Furthermore, few scientists have had the opportunity to be trained in the use of HESC or to explore the questions that can be addressed using these cells. Indeed, the NIH Stem Cell Task Force has identified the paucity of skilled researchers and lack of training environments for career enrichment as one of the rate-limiting steps in the advancement of HESC research. Dr. Marion Zatz presented a proposed announcement that would encourage applications for F32 individual postdoctoral fellowships from promising candidates with the potential to become productive, independent investigators in HESC-related research, as well as applications for F33 senior fellowships from experienced scientists who wish to make major changes in the direction of their research or who wish to broaden their scientific background by acquiring new capabilities in HESC research. Several NIH funding components plan to participate in this announcement. Dr. Zatz requested, and received, Council approval for soliciting proposals for fellowships in HESC research.
|
|
