National Institutes

In nine years, Ralph O. Williams has taken his company from the basement of his house to a plush Rockville office tower, from making money "on the backs of poor people" to a business dedicated to "improving the health of the nation."And he says R.O.W. Sciences Inc. is ready to take the next step -- to become a medium-sized biotechnology company.In a field crowded with Ph.D.s and white men, the distinguished chief executive and chairman stands out as one of the few blacks to head a biotechnology company.

Washington -- While Bill Clinton and his incoming crew are at it, they ought to take a close look at one of the least-scrutinized, taken-on-faith institutions on the federal landscape, the National Institutes of Health, manager and financier of the world's greatest health-research enterprise.With a budget of $10.3 billion this year, the NIH is far bigger than similar agencies in all other countries put together. Revered by Congress, which piles on money while rarely asking questions about results and priorities, the agency nearly tripled its budget during the otherwise lean years of the Reagan era. Under its hard-driving and ambitious director, Bernadine Healy, even greater expansion is planned.

To hear her attorneys and other supporters tell it, Dr. Margaret Jensvold had a great triumph and possibly even put a crack in the glass ceiling, that metaphorical barrier said to impede the careers of women and minorities in America.But it is evident her victory in federal court early last month was costly to her. And it was won not without possible damage to the age-old, informal method of teaching known as mentoring."I really think my career as an academic researcher is over," said Dr. Jensvold, who graduated in 1984 from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Scientist made deal with drug firm A senior government scientist originally from Baltimore pleaded guilty yesterday to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in undisclosed fees from the same drug manufacturer whose public-private research collaboration he oversaw. As part of his agreement with federal prosecutors, Pearson "Trey" Sunderland III, chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, is expected to receive a sentence of two years' supervised probation and must forfeit $300,000 in illegal proceeds and reimbursements.

I GOT the announcement about the conference in the mail last January. I was just about to give the innocuous-looking little brochure the customary three-point heave into the recycling bin when the conference title caught my eye -- "Genetic Factors in Crime: Findings, Uses and Implications."I did a double take. The Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy of the University of Maryland College Park, with the financial support of the National Institutes of Health, was going to hold a three-day conference in the second week of October to discuss whether or not criminal behavior had a biological or genetic source.

WASHINGTON - National Institutes of Health Director Elias A. Zerhouni, meeting with scientists who have railed against sweeping new ethics regulations, defended the rules aimed at halting conflict-of-interest problems. But scientists at yesterday's two-hour meeting said they found the agency director sympathetic to their grievances. "He clearly understood our position and clearly has many of the same concerns," said Cynthia Dunbar, senior investigator of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

To build on our existing economic strengths and usher in a new era of prosperity, Maryland must strengthen our already impressive roster of enterprises devoted to medical innovation. Medical research drives much of Maryland's economy, and the state can produce new jobs through efforts to upgrade its education system, seek federal help in focusing more state resources on innovation, and head to Washington to make the case for medical innovation. A new report from research firm Battelle and the Council for American Medical Innovation (CAMI)

WASHINGTON - President Bush moved yesterday to fill two top federal health jobs, nominating a trauma surgeon who is also a sheriff's deputy as surgeon general and Dr. Elias Zerhouni, an administrator at the Johns Hopkins University, to direct the National Institutes of Health. At a White House ceremony with the nominees and their families, Bush praised the two doctors, both of whom spoke of their humble beginnings, as "distinguished physicians who have worked tirelessly to save lives and to improve lives."

MONDAY Memorial Day is marked by President Bush with a wreath-laying ceremony and Arlington National Cemetery. The holiday comes at a time when American blood is being shed almost daily as efforts to quell the insurgency in Iraq continue. As of Friday, at least 1,653 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,264 died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. The figures include four military civilians.

A financial deal between Johns Hopkins Medicine and an upscale cosmetics company is just the latest high-profile example of how academic research institutions turn to industry to sustain their growth in an era of stagnating federal research funds. Pressure to form such relationships has accelerated in the past two decades as governments hungry for economic development pressed for more cooperation between academic institutions and private enterprise. And universities, flush with federal research funds, were eager to expand by adding programs and researchers.