We once again received wonderful Nobel news today. We were delighted to learn that three long-time NIGMS grantees–Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath–will share the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their “studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.”
Remarkably, at the same 1987 “Evolution of Catalytic Function” Cold Spring Harbor meeting where I first met Carol Greider, I heard Ada Yonath describe her initial attempts to crystallize and determine the structure of the ribosome. Tom Steitz also spoke about his exciting structure determination of DNA polymerase I, and Peter Moore talked about his work on the ribosome using specific deuterium labeling and neutron scattering methods developed in part with Venki Ramakrishnan. The meeting was filled with the promise that we would one day visualize and begin to understand this elaborate RNA-protein machine in atomic detail. More than a decade later, that promise was realized, as recognized by today’s announcement.
The Nobel committee has the daunting challenge of limiting itself to up to three laureates for each prize. Several other long-time NIGMS grantees who also contributed greatly to our understanding of the structure and function of the ribosome include Peter Moore, Harry Noller and Joachim Frank.
We were all very sad to learn of the death of Ruth Kirschstein, M.D., last evening. She will be deeply missed here at NIGMS, NIH, and beyond.
Dr. Kirschstein was an iconic figure at NIH and in the scientific community. She was the long-time director of NIGMS, serving from 1974 to 1993, and was the first female director of an NIH institute. She also served as acting director of NIH, deputy director of NIH, and in other key positions.
Dr. Kirschstein truly represented the best of NIH—public service, wisdom, and deep knowledge and analysis of important problems. She was so profoundly modest that Congress had to surprise her when they acknowledged her contributions and commitment to research training with the naming of the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards.
I am sure much more will be said and written about her in the future, and we will share this with you in the comments section. I encourage you to post your own thoughts about her as well.
We were delighted to learn this morning that long-time NIGMS grantees Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak will share the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their “discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.”
I remember very well the presentation by then-graduate student Carol Greider at the 1987 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology about her purification and initial characterization of telomerase and component RNA. Her passion and enthusiasm for science stood out, even in that high-powered crowd. I also enjoyed working with her when we were colleagues at Johns Hopkins before I came to NIGMS.
The work of Blackburn, Greider and Szostak represents an archetype of curiosity-driven basic research. The fact that DNA synthesis requires a template creates a clear challenge to copying the ends of DNA. The reality of this challenge was clear from Szostak’s studies with linear DNA molecules in yeast. Using a model organism (Tetrahymena) selected for its unusually high abundance of DNA ends, Blackburn’s lab identified telomere sequences and showed, with Szostak, that these sequences did, in fact, stabilize linear DNA molecules in yeast. Blackburn and Greider then set out to detect and purify the enzyme that adds telomeres to DNA.
After their success, they and many other researchers have explored the implications of these observations as they relate to cancer, cellular aging and stem cells. In the years to come, we can expect to see additional implications and broad exploitation of these observations.
Yesterday, President Obama came to NIH to deliver a speech highlighting the role of scientific research in the Recovery Act and the potential impacts of biomedical research on health. This event marked the end of the fiscal year and the extraordinary effort of the scientific community and the NIH staff in moving forward with Recovery Act investments. You can watch the video on the NIH Videocast Web site.
We will be posting more information about the status of NIGMS investments of Recovery Act funds soon.
A select number of graduate students will have the unique and exciting opportunity to meet and learn from dozens of Nobel Prize winners next summer in Germany during the annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. Now’s your chance to nominate your most outstanding students.
If you are unacquainted with this program, you can visit the official Web site or watch a video about the 2009 meeting. The 2010 meeting will feature Nobel laureates from chemistry, physics and physiology/medicine.
Photo taken by NIGMS-supported 2009 meeting attendee Erika Milczek, a graduate student at Emory University.
Last year, NIGMS was a sponsor of the meeting, and we are pleased to be one again in 2010. As I described in an earlier Feedback Loop post, the 2009 meeting gave students the opportunity to meet 23 chemistry laureates.
The 2009 U.S. delegation included about 65 graduate students, and I attended as the NIGMS representative. The energy and talent in our group of students were extraordinary! The students, who came from universities all over the country, found this to be a uniquely rewarding experience, with extensive opportunities for networking and international community-building in addition to one-on-one and small-group discussions with the Nobel laureates. Here are a couple of comments from NIH-supported students:
“[It] was an amazing and life-changing experience that is hard to put into words. The meeting gave me inspiration, motivation and hope for my future in science. I was able to learn secrets of success from some of the most highly regarded individuals in the field of chemistry and meet other young researchers [who] will help shape the future of scientific research. Most of all, it helped me realize that being in science is the correct choice for me and that I can, and will, accomplish many things throughout my scientific career.”“Such an experience drives people to reach for the big ideas in science. The short-term effect is a comprehensive shaking up of our perception of chemistry, but the long-term effect is the higher standard we set for our research and ourselves.”
The nomination and selection process will be exceptionally competitive, as the scientific coverage will be much broader than last year. Each university may nominate only one student per sponsoring agency (NIGMS, NSF and DOE). Keep in mind that nominees for NIGMS sponsorship must be involved in projects supported by NIGMS or supported by an NIGMS training award. Additional information about the meeting, including student eligibility and the nomination procedure, may be found at this Web site. Nominations are due by October 30 and should be submitted directly to the Lindau organization using an electronic submission form.
Please contact the organizer of the U.S. delegation, Sam Held, with questions about the 2010 event or nomination procedures. You may also e-mail me or Mike Rogers at NIGMS, especially with questions about eligibility for NIGMS support.
We’re once again soliciting applications for exceptionally innovative research projects whose outcome, if successful, could have a major impact on a broad swath of the scientific community. NIGMS is the lead institute for the EUREKA initiative, and eight other NIH institutes are also participating this year.
If you’ve got an idea that could change the world, and your research interests mesh with those of any of the participating institutes, you should consider applying for a EUREKA grant. In general, we’re looking for projects that can be started and completed during the term of the award. The exceptionally innovative component can be the hypothesis that you’re testing—a novel, unconventional idea that challenges prevailing wisdom—or a clever solution to a technological or conceptual problem that’s impeding progress in your field.
Interested? Check out the funding opportunity announcement in the NIH Guide. You can apply for up to $250,000 (direct costs) per year for a maximum of four years. NIGMS has set aside $6 million for EUREKA awards in fiscal year 2010.
When you look at the application instructions, you’ll see that EUREKA applications are very different from conventional R01s. In your biosketch, you’ll be citing up to 10 publications, patents and meeting abstracts that demonstrate your ability to use innovative approaches to challenge conventional wisdom or solve difficult problems, rather than simply listing your most recent publications. In the research plan, which is only seven pages long, you’ll be answering questions that are designed to focus your attention on the importance of the problem, the novelty of your hypothesis or approach and the magnitude of the potential impact, rather than on experimental details. It’s not as formidable as it sounds. Many of the investigators who applied for EUREKAs in past years have told me that they enjoyed writing their applications—not a comment that we hear very often from the scientific community!
The receipt deadline for EUREKA applications is November 24, 2009. This is a special receipt date, so you won’t be able to get an extension for personal reasons or study section service. We’ll be reviewing applications in March or April 2010, and plan to make awards (around 20) in the summer of 2010.
For more information about EUREKA, check out our Frequently Asked Questions (Link no longer active).
Many aspects of the new scoring system are unfamiliar, including the use of overall impact scores as integers from 10 (best) to 90 (worst). A summary of the new scoring system is well described in a scoring system and procedure document, and an earlier version of this was shared widely with reviewers.
As background, I compiled some data for approximately 300 NIGMS R01 applications reviewed under the new system.
This plot shows the distribution of overall impact scores along with the corresponding percentiles. Note the relative spread of percentile scores at a given impact score. This spread is due to the fact that percentiles are determined independently for each study section that considered 25 or more R01 applications. Otherwise, percentiles are determined across the overall pool of R01 applications reviewed by the Center for Scientific Review.
For comparison, here is a plot of a similar number of NIGMS R01 applications reviewed using the old scoring system.
Note the similar spread of percentiles at a given score due to study section-specific percentiling.
I would like to mention another major change as a result of the NIH Enhancing Peer Review effort. You must use restructured application forms and instructions, including a 12-page length limit for R01s, for applications due on or after January 25, 2010. For details, see the recent NIH Guide notice. We plan to post updates about these changes as key dates approach.
Three weeks ago, I posted a graph of the cumulative investment of NIGMS Recovery Act funds as a function of the award start date. Below is an updated version.
This graph differs from my previous one in two ways. First, it is up to date as of yesterday. Second, it includes commitments for the second year of awarded 2-year R01 grants. As it shows, we are close to allocating half of our $505 million of Recovery Act funds. We are making more awards every day, with the Challenge grants, GO grants, and faculty start-up (P30) grants to be awarded soon.
The awards made to date can be broken down into seven major categories.
This graph shows the amount and total number of awards (blue type above each bar) in each category. The gray-shaded area over the R01 category reflects second-year commitments.
To put these figures in context, NIGMS currently supports approximately 3,600 R01 grants; 50 AREA (R15) grants; 250 Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) S06, SC1, SC2, SC3, and R25 grants; 50 Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) T34 grants; and 300 institutional research training T32 grants.
We will continue to update you on our Recovery Act activities as we move from one fiscal year to the next at the end of this month.
Yesterday, President Obama announced the 2009 recipients of the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The nine winners of the National Medal of Science include NIH Director Francis Collins and long-time NIGMS grantee JoAnne Stubbe, a biochemist at MIT. I am delighted that the President recognized these outstanding scientists and innovators for their contributions.
This is just a reminder that letters of intent for the three PSI:Biology funding opportunities are due on Monday, Sept. 28. If you’re still thinking about applying, please view these resources:
Potential collaborators for PSI:Biology partnerships
You can access this and other relevant information from our PSI:Biology Web site. Please continue to direct any additional questions to me by e-mail or phone (301-594-0828).
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for their “studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.”
We were all very sad to learn of the death of Ruth Kirschstein, M.D., last evening. She will be deeply missed here at NIGMS, NIH, and beyond.
