Nih

The archrivals in the race to create the first blueprint of human genes are talking about joining forces, hoping to accelerate one of the most important research projects in biomedicine.The National Institutes of Health and Celera Genomics Corp. say there are no proposals on the table. But they are talking informally and agree they have more to gain than lose by cooperating.Their goal is to determine the sequence of all 3 billion chemical units, called nucleotide bases, in human DNA. Both sides pledge to complete that sequence -- called the human genome -- in the next 12 to 24 months.

Nearly half the contracts -- and seven out of 10 research dollars -- let by the National Institutes of Health in the last fiscal year again landed in the Baltimore-Washington market, a new report shows.In fiscal 1991, which ended in September, companies and institutions in the Washington-Baltimore region received 47 percent of all NIH contracts, up from 45 percent the year before, according to a report to be released today by the Washington-Baltimore Regional Association.The 714 contracts awarded in the region were worth $337 million -- a $12.8 million, or 3.95 percent, increase over the previous year's awards.

WASHINGTON -- Lifting the ban on taxpayer funding of research on new stem cells from fertilized embryos would better serve both science and the nation, the chief of the National Institutes of Health told lawmakers yesterday. Allowing the ban to remain in place, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni told a Senate panel, leaves his agency fighting "with one hand tied behind our back. ... It is clear today that American science will be better served - the nation will be better served - if we allow our scientists to have access to more cell lines," Zerhouni told two members of the Senate health appropriations subcommittee during a hearing on the NIH's proposed 2008 budget.

Was it need or greed? Prudent or outrageous?At the same time that the United States is engaging in an unprecedented international scientific effort to locate and identify ("map") all human genes, the National Institutes of Health has applied to patent hundreds of genes whose purpose is not yet known, unleashing a hail of outspoken criticism from scientists abroad and at home. And NIH plans to seek patents on possibly thousands more partial genes."This is just nonsense," said Sydney Brenner, a leading British molecular geneticist involved in Great Britain's gene mapping program.

Dr. Bernadine P. Healy, a former professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, may become the first woman to head the National Institutes of Health.According to published reports, Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan already has asked the White House to clear the appointment of Healy, chairwoman of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation Research Institute in Ohio and past president of the American Heart Association.The world's leading medical research organization, the NIH has 14 institutes that investigate the causes and treatments of a broad range of diseases, including cancer, heart ailments and AIDS.

A female scientist who claims discrimination against women runs rampant at the prestigious National Institutes of Health has won a federal court ruling that she was unlawfully denied flexible working conditions for a handicap and pressured into retirement.Dr. Sharon Johnson, a biochemist who now owns an Edgewater flower shop, said yesterday that the decision finally brings legitimacy to the claims of many women who have suffered job discrimination and sexual harassment at the nation's leading medical research center.

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 -- Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, reported progress yesterday in an effort to encourage cutting-edge research that crosses disciplines and is tested more quickly to determine whether it provides an effective cure or treatment. "Three years ago it was an experiment. Today it is part of the culture. Tomorrow it will be institutionalized," Zerhouni said after a news conference championing the initiative, called the NIH Roadmap, which he started after becoming director in 2002.

BETHESDA -- In just a minute she'll be ready to sit down for an interview, promises Dr. Bernadine P. Healy, new director of the National Institutes of Health. Just one minute, but first there's something she has to do.Sure, anyone can understand that. Here's a woman heading a $9 billion enterprise, directing the workings of 13 powerful individual institutes and seven other divisions, a woman with incessant demands upon her time and energy. Maybe the president is on the line. Maybe someone needs her input on a new strategy for curing cancer.

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.