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Chris A. Kaiser Selected as NIGMS Director

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Photo of Chris Kaiser, Ph.D.NIH Director Francis Collins today announced his selection of Chris A. Kaiser as the new director of NIGMS. Dr. Kaiser expects to begin his appointment here in the spring of 2012. We are delighted by this news, and we appreciate the efforts of the NIH search committee in identifying and vetting candidates for the position.

A leading cell biologist, Dr. Kaiser has been head of the Department of Biology at MIT since 2004. He joined the MIT faculty in 1991 and became a full professor in 2002.

Dr. Kaiser is not new to the NIGMS community—he has been an NIGMS grantee since 1992 and has served on several NIH review committees. His research uses yeast to study the basic mechanisms of protein folding and intracellular transport, particularly how secreted and other proteins form disulfide bonds. He started this work as a graduate student at MIT in David Botstein’s lab, then expanded on it during a postdoctoral fellowship with Randy Schekman at the University of California, Berkeley. He plans to continue his research at NIH.

In the NIH news release on his selection, Dr. Kaiser said, “In taking this position, I feel a compelling call to duty for national service and to be an advocate for the basic research enterprise.”

We welcome his leadership and vision, and we very much look forward to working with him.

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Continuing Resolution and Noncompeting Research Grant Award Levels

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A continuing resolution enacted on October 4, 2011, extends NIH’s operations through November 18, 2011, at the Fiscal Year 2011 level minus 1.5%.

During this period, NIH will make noncompeting research grant awards at reduced levels, typically up to 90% of the previously committed level. This approach is consistent with our practice during continuing resolutions in other years. NIH will consider upward adjustments to awarded levels once Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations are enacted.

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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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NIGMS-Related Funding Opportunities

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You may be interested in the following funding opportunities that were recently published in the NIH Guide:

Collaborations with National Centers for Biomedical Computing (R01)
(PAR-12-001)

Purpose: Use computational tools and biological and behavioral application drivers of the funded National Centers for Biomedical Computing as a foundation for building a biomedical computing environment
Application due date: Standard dates apply
NIGMS contact: Peter Lyster, 301-451-6446
More info: National Centers for Biomedical Computing Web site (no longer available)

Dynamics of Host-Associated Microbial Communities (R01)
(RFA-GM-13-001)

Purpose: Reveal basic principles and mechanisms that govern the symbiotic systems dynamics of host-associated microbial communities through genetic, physiological and ecological studies
Letter of intent due date: December 13, 2011
Application due date: January 13, 2012
NIGMS contact: Shiva Singh, 301-594-3900

Short Courses on Mathematical, Statistical, and Computational Tools for Studying Biological Systems (R25)
(PA-11-351)

Purpose: Conduct workshops and short courses to improve integration of mathematical, statistical and computational approaches into biological and/or behavioral research
Letter of intent due date: 30 days before application due date
Application due date: Standard dates apply
NIGMS contact: Irene Eckstrand, 301-594-0943

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Nobel Prize and Other Honors

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Bruce BeutlerWe are pleased that Bruce Beutler, who has been an NIGMS grantee since 2000, is a recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. He was cited for “discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity.” We congratulate him on this great honor.

Beutler has been at the Scripps Research Institute since 2000 but is moving back to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, which is where he worked when he discovered the receptor for endotoxin in 1998.

While we did not support him at that time, we began funding him shortly thereafter to further explore this seminal discovery. Our first grant to him was titled “TLR4 as an LPS Sensor and Susceptibility Locus,” and our second was titled “Mutagenic Analysis of LPS Responses.” The latter grant, which is still active, was awarded as an R01 in 2003 and converted to an R37 (MERIT Award) in 2008.

With this support, Beutler pioneered the use of a novel mutagenesis process in model systems to characterize several key intermediates in the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway of the innate immune response. These and other advances have formed a molecular framework for a deeper understanding of innate immunity, which is essential for normal host defense but which can also go awry, causing chronic inflammatory diseases and sepsis.

Today’s Nobel news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that the National Medal of Science will go to two of our grantees, Jackie Barton of Caltech and Peter Stang of the University of Utah.

And at the other end of the career spectrum, NIGMS grantee Sara Sawyer of the University of Texas at Austin is among the 20 NIH-funded scientists who were just selected for the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This award is the nation’s highest honor for scientists at the beginning of their professional careers.

We congratulate these grantees on their notable recognitions.

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Funding Allocation for Research Project Grants in Fiscal Year 2012

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In this 200th Feedback Loop post, I’d like to share budget slides I presented earlier this month during the open session of our National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council meeting. The session also included updates on several of our initiatives as well concept clearances for two new ones, which are briefly described in the meeting summary.

As part of my acting director’s report, I presented our Fiscal Year 2012 funding plan and focused specifically on our budget for research project grants (RPGs), which includes mostly R01s. The figures below are based on a budget estimate for Fiscal Year 2012, which begins on October 1. Since NIH has not yet received an appropriation for the next fiscal year, the estimate assumes that the budget will be at approximately the Fiscal Year 2011 level.

Figure 1 breaks down the total NIGMS budget of about $2.034 billion into its major components and shows that 67% of the budget will support RPGs. Of that portion, we will use around 76% to pay noncompeting grants (commitments on grants already awarded). This leaves about 23% for competing grants and 1% for supplements.

Figure 1. Fiscal Year 2012 Breakdown

 

Figure 1. Fiscal Year 2012 breakdown of the estimated NIGMS budget into its major components. About 67% of the budget will support research project grants (RPGs), and of that, 76% will be used to pay noncompeting grants, 23% to pay competing grants and 1% to pay supplements.

Figure 2 breaks down the competing RPG budget. It shows that 93% will be used to pay investigator-initiated research and that the remaining 7% will fund mainly R01 grants submitted in response to requests for applications (RFAs), which have been carefully considered by NIGMS staff in consultation with the scientific community and have been approved by our Advisory Council during the concept clearance process.

Figure 2: NIGMS FY 2012 Breakdown of Estimated Competing RPG Budget

 

Figure 2. Fiscal Year 2012 breakdown of the estimated competing RPG budget. About 93% of the budget will be used to pay investigator-initiated research, and the remainder will fund R01 grants submitted in response to RFAs.

The final figure shows that the portion of the competing RPG budget spent on investigator-initiated research during the last 8 years has varied between 87% and 94%, further indicating that NIGMS commits a relatively small amount of RPG funds to grants that are not investigator-initiated.

Figure 3. Comparison of RPG Budgets in Fiscal Years 2004-2011

 

Figure 3. Comparison of RPG budgets in Fiscal Years 2004-2011 for investigator-initiated research versus set-asides for grants in response to specific RFAs. During this period, the portion spent on investigator-initiated research has varied between 87% and 94%.
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NIGMS-Related Funding Opportunities

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You may be interested in the following funding opportunities that were recently published in the NIH Guide:

NIH Director’s Transformative Research Awards (R01)
(RFA-RM-11-006)

Purpose: Support exceptionally innovative, high-risk, unconventional research
Letter of intent due date: December 12, 2011
Application due date: January 12, 2012
NIGMS contact: Laurie Tompkins, 301-594-0943
NIH contact: Ravi Basavappa, 301-435-7204
More info: This is an NIH Common Fund program; it replaces the NIGMS EUREKA and the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Project (TR01) initiatives

Mechanistic Pathways Linking Psychosocial Stress and Behavior (R01)
(RFA-HL-12-037)

Purpose: Investigate basic psychological, social and environmental mechanisms and processes linking psychosocial stressors and behaviors that may ultimately impact biological function, health and disease
Letter of intent due date: November 19, 2011
Application due date: December 19, 2011
NIGMS contact: Stephen Marcus, 301-451-6446
NHLBI contact: Catherine Stoney, 301-435-6670
More info: Issued by the NIH Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Opportunity Network (OppNet)

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Collaborative Science Supplement Requests Due in January

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Do unexpected results from your NIGMS-funded R01 or R37 project have you thinking about your research in a different way, or is there a new approach that will greatly advance the aims of your studies? Will you need a collaborator with appropriate expertise to proceed?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, you might consider applying for an administrative supplement for collaborative science (SCS). Now in its 4th year, the SCS program enables new collaborations that were not initially planned and therefore are not supported by the parent grant. Grants must be actively funded through at least July 31, 2013, to be eligible for the next submission deadline of January 15, 2012.

To be sure that your proposal is appropriate for this program, please read the NIH Guide notice, review the program description (no longer available) and discuss your plans with your NIGMS program director. For general questions about the program, e-mail me or Marion Zatz.

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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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Announcing Funding Opportunities and Research Administration News

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We’re trying something new! To keep you posted on funding opportunities, we’ll provide a digest of NIGMS-related announcements soon after they appear in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, typically every 1 to 2 weeks. (You also can subscribe to get a weekly list of all NIH Guide announcements.)

Similarly, we plan to post monthly digests of relevant highlights from the NIH Office of Extramural Research blog.

Here is the first digest of funding opportunities. Please let me know if you do or don’t like this format or if you have suggestions for ways to improve its usefulness to you.

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You may be interested in the following funding opportunities that were recently published in the NIH Guide:

NIGMS Centers for HIV/AIDS-Related Structural Biology (P50)

RFA-GM-12-003
Purpose: Structure determination and dynamic characterization of macromolecular complexes among and between components of HIV and the components of host cells
Letter of intent due date: December 7, 2011
Application due date: January 6, 2012
NIGMS contact: Michael Sakalian, 301-594-0828
More info: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/SpecificAreas/
AIDSStructuralBiology/

Lab to Marketplace: Tools for Biomedical and Behavioral Research (SBIR [R43/R44])

PA-11-335
Purpose: Translation of technologies for biomedical or behavioral research from academic and other non-small business research sectors to the marketplace
Application due date: Standard dates apply
NIGMS contact: Scott Somers, 301-594-3827
More info: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/Mechanisms/Pages/SBIR.aspx

Development of Novel and Emerging Technologies for the Accurate Detection and Diagnosis of Polymicrobial Infections in Biomedical Laboratory Animal Models (SBIR [R43/R44]), (STTR [R41/R42])

SBIR: PA-11-340; STTR: PA-11-341
Purpose: Rapid and sensitive detection of infectious agents as a key requirement for microbial identification in laboratory animal models
Application due date: Standard dates apply
NIGMS contact: Stefan Maas, 301-594-0943
More info: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/Mechanisms/Pages/SBIR.aspx, http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/Mechanisms/Pages/STTR.aspx