Category: Resources

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Outsourcing Lab Procedures: What Are Your Needs and Ideas?

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Do you want to have more or easier access to state-of-the-art technologies and methodologies for your research? Are there specific types of non-clinical laboratory procedures that you wish were available through an outsourcing service?

If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, then please consider responding to our Request for Information (RFI): Priorities for Outsourcing of Laboratory Procedures. The RFI will help us identify research areas, such as assays, measurements and computational and data management tasks, that could be developed into outsourced services perhaps by small businesses and possibly supported through new funding opportunities.

Responses, which are voluntary and anonymous, should be submitted electronically (no longer available) by May 1, 2012.

UPDATE: The response deadline has been extended to May 15 (NOT-GM-12-110).

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Give Input on Public Access to Publications and Data

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The Office of Science and Technology Policy has issued two requests for information (RFIs) on public access to scholarly publications and to digital data resulting from federally funded research. This input will inform working groups of the National Science and Technology Council that are developing policies on these topics.

The first RFI, Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications Resulting from Federally Funded Research, deals with questions related to managing public access, protecting intellectual property interests, embargoing publications and identifying other types of peer-reviewed publications (beyond scholarly journal articles) that should be covered by public access policies. Responses will be accepted through January 2, 2012.

The second RFI, Public Access to Digital Data Resulting from Federally Funded Scientific Research, seeks input on public access to data as well as actions to ensure the long-term usefulness and preservation of the data, protect intellectual property interests and harmonize different types and sources of data. Responses will be accepted through January 12, 2012.

If you want to know more about NIH’s existing policies on these topics, a good resource is the NIH Sharing Policies and Related Guidance on NIH-Funded Research Resources Web site. The site includes information on the data sharing policy, which requires all NIH investigator-initiated applications with direct costs greater than $500,000 in any single year to provide a data sharing plan. It also links to the NIH Public Access Policy, which requires scientists to submit an electronic version of the final, peer-reviewed manuscript to PubMed Central within 12 months of the official date of publication.

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New Resource for Finding and Contributing Cellular Images

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With NIGMS support through a Recovery Act grant, the American Society for Cell Biology has established The Cell: An Image Library. The resource is a freely accessible, easy-to-search, public repository of reviewed and annotated images, videos and animations of cells.

The goal is to create a single place where scientists—as well as educators, students and the general public—can find images of cellular structures and processes. The library currently houses more than 3,600 representative images from different organisms and cell types. You can search for specific images or browse by a number of categories.

You can use the library to:

  • Locate historical and recent images to use in slide presentations or classroom lectures,
  • Study how structures behave in a cell with the movies and animations,
  • Compare cellular structures from different organisms,
  • Generate new scientific questions based on observed characteristics, and
  • Identify potential collaborators.

The curators continue to improve the site and to add images. Plans include future collections related to diseased cells. I encourage you to draw from the library and also to submit your own images.

If you have feedback on the library, you can send it to the manager, David Orloff.

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New NIH Curriculum Supplement on Evolution and Medicine

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Cover image of the NIH Curriculum Supplement on Evolution and MedicineTo help students develop a rich understanding of evolution, NIH has just published a new high school curriculum supplement, Evolution and Medicine, that includes two weeks of lessons.

I particularly like the supplement because it shows through clear, scientifically-valid examples that evolutionary biology is fundamental to understanding health and disease. For instance, a unit on lactase persistence demonstrates how variation is distributed geographically and how it’s associated with the environment. There’s a unit on influenza that focuses on the evolutionary principles underlying vaccine development, and another that explains the evolutionary rationale for using model organisms.

The supplement was produced by the NIH Office of Science Education, but many of us at NIGMS were involved in developing and reviewing it. You can see an outline and order a copy for your own use or to share with others. A version of the supplement that you can review online and a downloadable teacher’s guide are coming soon. Descriptions of and links to other curriculum supplements are also available.

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Emergence of Quantitative and Systems Pharmacology: A White Paper

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Our interest in quantitative and systems pharmacology (QSP) began in 2007 as a question about why we were seeing so little integration between two fields we fund: systems biology and pharmacology. We recognized that connecting them could improve our understanding of drug action and speed drug discovery and development while also increasing our scientific understanding of biology.

To examine the potential of quantitative, systems approaches to pharmacology research, we sponsored two workshops in this area, one in 2008 and the other in 2010. After the second meeting, a committee of external scientists who were also workshop participants began drafting a white paper to assess the state of the science and enumerate the opportunities, needs and challenges for QSP as an emerging discipline.

The committee recently issued the white paper.

The paper makes the case that this post-genomic era is the right time to develop and employ quantitative, systems approaches to understand drug action more predictively, and that the need and excitement for doing so is building. Already we are starting to see evidence of this field emerging—the University of California, San Francisco, has started a Center for Quantitative Pharmacology, and Harvard Medical School just announced an Initiative in Systems Pharmacology. Also, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences annual meeting this month will include a session called, “Achieving the Quantitative and Systems Pharmacology Vision.”

The overall recommendation of the workshop committee is for pharmacology to move beyond characterizing drug/target interactions to a holistic quantitative understanding of drug action across many levels—from drug-receptor interactions to drug response in humans. As stated in the paper, this will require the participation of scientists from academia and industry who work in diverse areas, including traditional pharmacology, clinical pharmacology, pharmacodynamics/pharmacokinetic modeling, systems biology, chemistry, bioinformatics, multiscale modeling and computer science. Training new and established investigators also will be a critical element.

We encourage you to read the paper and let us know what you think about its recommendations for research and training in QSP.

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Expression Plasmids and Empty Vectors Available

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PSI:Biology-Materials Repository bannerGreat news for biochemists, biologists and structural biologists—more than 50,000 protein expression plasmids and almost 100 empty vectors are now available through the PSI:Biology-Materials Repository. This includes about 900 membrane protein plasmids, and we expect this number—plus that for human proteins—to grow in the coming months.

The repository has carefully collected, maintained and annotated these materials generated by scientists involved in the Protein Structure Initiative. In addition, it has developed and optimized the empty vectors for producing proteins in bacteria, yeast and cell-free systems. For a modest charge, you can order the plasmids and vectors from the online catalog.

Many of the plasmids represent proteins whose crystal structures have been determined but whose biological functions are not yet known. Search the repository or use the Functional Sleuth to find out if the structure of your favorite protein or a similar one has already been determined.

If you can’t locate the plasmids you need in the PSI collection, you might search the larger DNASU plasmid repository, which houses the PSI:Biology Materials Repository. This central repository offers plasmids from hundreds of organisms and special collections, including human kinases, the Thermotoga maritime genome and a new set of 180 glycoenzymes.

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Systems Biology Center Offers Computational Course Materials

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In addition to their systems-level studies of complex biological phenomena, the NIGMS-supported National Centers for Systems Biology engage in a variety of training and outreach activities. One recent example is a curriculum for first-year graduate students created by the New York Center for Systems Biology. This material introduces computational principles and approaches that are becoming increasingly important across the biomedical sciences.

If you would like to know more about this course and/or download materials such as lecture slides or problem sets, please see the Teaching Resources section (no longer available) of the September 13, 20 and 27 issues of Science Signaling.

To learn more about the systems biology centers and their offerings, visit the systems biology portal (no longer available).

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Journal Essay: Perspectives of a Program Officer

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I’ve been a program officer for NIGMS research and training activities for 27 years. The Molecular Biology of the Cell journal recently asked me to describe the general roles of such a position, including the challenges and rewards. My essay, which appeared in the August 1 issue, offers insight into what the job entails and how we can help our applicants and grantees.

Here’s the abstract for “A View from the NIH Bridge: Perspectives of a Program Officer”:

This essay is written from my perspective as a program officer for research and training activities at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) for almost 27 yr. It gives a bird’s-eye view of the job of a program officer, which includes providing advice to applicants and grantees, making funding recommendations, overseeing grantees’ progress, facilitating scientific opportunities in specific areas of program responsibility, and shaping NIGMS and National Institutes of Health (NIH) policy. I have highlighted the numerous rewards of serving as a program officer, as well as some of the difficulties. For those who may be considering a position as an NIH program officer now or in the future, I’ve also described the qualities and qualifications that are important for such a career choice. Finally, this essay addresses some of the challenges for the NIH and the research community in the years ahead as we simultaneously face exciting scientific opportunities and tighter budgets.

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NIGMS Cell Repository Now Includes iPS Cell Lines

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The HGCR iPS cell lines undergo extensive characterization, including assessment of their capacity to differentiate into specialized cell types. The cell shown here was directed to differentiate into a nerve cell.As we anticipated last year, the NIGMS Human Genetic Cell Repository (HGCR) now offers human induced pluripotent stem cell lines that carry disease gene mutations. The first five lines to be made available were derived from individuals with Huntington’s disease, juvenile onset diabetes, severe combined immunodeficiency disease, muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy. The repository is developing more cell lines representing other diseases.

The iPS cell lines, along with more than 10,000 others in the repository, are comprehensively characterized to ensure their identity, stability and purity. This quality control makes the repository an excellent resource for researchers who need well-characterized, disease-specific cells.

You can order any of the repository’s cell lines via the HGCR catalog.

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Preview Our New Web Site Design

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A new look and feel for the NIGMS Web site will launch in the next few weeks. The design incorporates feedback we received during usability testing with individuals representing key target audiences—scientists, administrators, educators, news media and the public—as well as from our recent user satisfaction survey and other data.

The new design features a fresh color palette based on the NIGMS logo, fewer top-level tabs and a reorganization of how some content is presented. We also make it easier for users to connect with us through social media like Twitter and Facebook.

Even with these latest enhancements, the site is always a work in progress. We welcome your input and suggestions at any time.

UPDATE: The redesigned NIGMS Web site has launched. While redirects are in place, please be sure to check your bookmarks as some page URLs may have changed.