National Institutes

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.

NationsBank said yesterday that it would try to control health-care costs with a new system of managed care that includes negotiating directly with doctors and hospitals for discounted rates in some areas.The plan will allow many of its 55,000 employees nationwide, including 3,400 in Baltimore, to choose either a health maintenance organization or a preferred-provider organization.Employees who choose the HMO would receive medical care for a flat monthly rate. Workers who join the PPO and go to doctors and hospitals on the NationsBank plan's list would receive 80 percent reimbursement.

North American Vaccine Inc.The Beltsville vaccine development company said its losses in the quarter that ended March 30 doubled, to $2 million, compared with the same period last year.The research and development company attributed much of the loss to legal fees associated with a patent-infringement suit the company filed last year against American Cyanamid Co. of New Jersey. The case will go to trial in August.The company's revenues come from its sale of a pertussis vaccine to the National Institutes of Health, which is using it to test the vaccine's effectiveness and safety in children.

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-- 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.

BETHESDA -- The National Cancer Institute has decided to make the experimental drug taxol, which has shown promise in fighting advanced ovarian cancer, available to thousands more patients eventually through 39 cancer centers nationwide, a senior official said yesterday.There is only enough of the scarce drug to treat 500 patients the rest of this year, said Dr. Bruce A. Chabner, director of the division of cancer treatment at NCI.The institute wants to amass 750,000 pounds of taxol bark, he said, which is enough to treat 10,000 to 15,000 patients.

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.