National Institutes

LOS ANGELES -- Under pressure from African-American doctors, federal officials say they plan to take a fresh look at an experimental anti-AIDS drug that the physicians contend has been ignored for years because of racism.The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases agreed yesterday to design clinical trials to study low-dose oral alpha interferon, said Dr. Jack Killen, deputy director of the NIA division of AIDS.Previously, the World Health Organization and U.S. National Institutes of Health reported finding no proof that the drug is effective against acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers received nearly $5 million in federal stimulus money from the National Institutes of Health to create two programs to improve health for minority and rural communities. A $2.4 million grant will create a national Bioethics Research Center, which aims to confront ethical issues in research and how those concerns affect minority health. The center, a partnership with Bowie State University, will address a historic lack of trust that some minority groups have when it comes to medical research by seeking ways to increase minority participation in clinical trials.

This is a weekly summary of selected prime contracts recently awarded by the federal government to companies and other vendors in Maryland.Maryland contractsBooz-Allen & Hamilton in Bethesda won a $4,732,902 contractfrom the Navy to provide engineering services.Simms Industries Inc. in Columbia won a $2,254,224 contract from the Navy to provide engineering, technical and analytical support.Arinc Research Corp. in Annapolis won a $1,759,662 contract from the Army to provide microwave landing system engineering support.

Washington -- Why is the National Institutes of Health in marathon controversies over its handling of scientific misdeeds? The answer is surprising: Not enough lawyers.The National Institutes of Health entrust fraud-busting to scientists, with only a limited role for lawyers, though fraud cases involve money, reputations and careers, all historically enmeshed legal protections. The scientists on fraud patrol have naively bungled procedural matters, causing derailment of some long-running cases.

You'll find Dr. Randall L. Kincaid, a former National Institutes of Health research chief, in a converted Rockville warehouse toiling away on a scientific frontier called protein expression.The erudite and affable Dr. Kincaid gave up his well-equipped high-tech laboratory at the federal government's National Institutes of Health in Bethesda -- not to mention the prestige and salary of working at the sprawling life sciences hub -- for these stripped-down quarters in an industrial park.Why?

WASHINGTON -- In his new budget, President Clinton plans to seek a substantial increase in federal spending on biomedical research, and members of Congress from both parties say they are virtually certain to approve an even bigger increase.Science and politics point to the same conclusion. When Congress reconvenes this month, lawmakers will be seeking more money for the National Institutes of Health because they believe that researchers can exploit promising scientific opportunities such as advances in cancer treatment.

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of congressional leaders has asked the director of the National Institutes of Health to provide details of a senior researcher's ties to several pharmaceutical companies. The congressional leaders, including the Republican chairman and the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in their letter that they wanted the details to enable them to evaluate conflict-of-interest policies at the NIH. They requested a response by the end of this week.

Washington-- The vestiges of prudery in American culture were long ago covered by an avalanche of sexual explicitness on screen, in print and, often enough, in personal public behavior.Delete sex from the thoughts of most people and their brain waves would appreciably flatten. Fornication ranks with TV as a favorite activity, indoors and out, of many kids too young for a learner's permit. And condoms, not too long ago behind-the-counter items confined to drug stores, are now out ,, there in the supermarket, alongside the toothpaste, opposite the canned soups.

National Institutes of Health officials unveiled their new laboratory building in Southeast Baltimore during a carefully choreographed tour yesterday, saying the vibration and other problems that affected the facility are behind it. "We overcame a lot of challenges," said Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health. He dismissed the troubles as a natural part of constructing a complex laboratory and said building vibrations are now low enough that they are "not a real problem."

WASHINGTON -- Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski asked the National Institutes of Health to explain how much of the medical research planned for its new $250 million building in Southeast Baltimore will have to be moved elsewhere because of the vibrations creating problems at the government lab. Scientists at the federal research agency were supposed to have relocated to the building this fall but are awaiting word whether they can make the move or...