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Lasker Award Highlights Protein Folding Discoveries

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The Lasker Awards recognize major contributions to understanding and treating, curing or preventing disease. The 2011 prizes were announced yesterday, and we’re proud that two former NIGMS grantees, Franz-Ulrich Hartl of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and Arthur L. Horwich of the Yale School of Medicine, are being honored with the Basic Medical Research Award.

Hartl and Horwich are cited for their discoveries about the cell’s protein-folding machinery, particularly the identification of chaperonin, which shifted the paradigm of how proteins fold. The field of protein folding is a great example of the importance of the basic research that NIGMS funds and how it lays the foundation for medical advances—in this case, shedding light on diseases linked to misfolding or aggregation, such as Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

We’re also delighted that the NIH Clinical Center was selected to receive the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award.

We congratulate all of the recipients on these well-deserved honors.

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Apply for Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Program

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The NIGMS program supporting research on the evolution of infectious diseases has merged with the ecology of infectious disease program that has been supported primarily by the National Science Foundation and NIH’s Fogarty International Center to create a new funding opportunity announcement.

Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID), also sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recognizes that infectious disease systems offer a perfect model for studying how context (i.e., ecology) and change (i.e., evolution) interact as organisms adapt to each other. The intersection of ecology and evolution also is relevant to many real-world problems, such as finding new vaccines or understanding how pathogens emerge.

EEID research will advance broad, conceptual knowledge that reaches beyond specific systems and that may be useful for understanding public, agricultural or ecosystem health; natural resource use and wildlife management; and/or economic development.

NIGMS’ particular interest is in the integration of ecological and evolutionary dynamics to address, for example:

  • The role of social influences on the susceptibility of individuals or populations,
  • Interactions between pathogenic and nonpathogenic organisms and their mutual hosts,
  • The emergence of pathogens from nonpathogenic populations,
  • Host switching, and
  • The evolution and maintenance of drug resistance.

Applications should combine field and laboratory research with mathematical, statistical and computational modeling. We encourage proposals from collaborative teams with expertise from diverse disciplines. Applications are due by December 7 and will be submitted to and reviewed by NSF. NIGMS will consider funding those that score well and are within the Institute’s mission areas.

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Nominate Outstanding Mentors for Presidential Awards

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Mentoring is a core value at NIGMS, and we emphasize it in our training, career development and other programs. Among the mentoring activities we encourage in our Strategic Plan for Biomedical and Behavioral Research Training are the use of individual development plans and the adoption of evidence-based practices to grow trainees’ career skills.

Another reflection of the importance of mentoring—the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring—recognizes outstanding efforts that enhance the participation and retention of those who might not otherwise have pursued careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. A number of scientists and programs we fund have been recognized with past national mentoring awards, including three earlier this year.

You now have the opportunity to nominate a great mentor (including yourself) or organization for outstanding and sustained efforts at the K-12, undergraduate or graduate level over at least 5 years. Nominations are due by October 5. See the program solicitation for details.

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Revised Financial Conflicts of Interest Regulations

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The revised regulations on extramural investigators’ financial conflicts of interest have been published in the Federal Register. The final rule is based on input NIH received from the community.

The revised regulations, as outlined by NIH’s Sally Rockey, now:

  • Require investigators to disclose to their institutions all of their significant financial interests related to their institutional responsibilities as opposed to only those that they see as related to Public Health Service (PHS)-supported research.
  • Lower the monetary threshold for disclosure of significant financial interests, from $10,000 to $5,000.
  • Require institutions to report to the PHS awarding component more comprehensively on identified financial conflicts of interest and how they are being managed.
  • Require institutions to make certain information concerning identified financial conflicts of interest held by senior/key personnel accessible to the public.
  • Require investigators to be trained on the regulations and their institution’s financial conflict of interest policy at designated times.

NIH is developing training materials, which will be posted on its Financial Conflict of Interest website. For more details, visit the “quick links.”

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Wanted: Program Director, Division of Genetics and Developmental Biology

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We’re looking for a program director (also known as a “health scientist administrator/program officer”) to manage research grants and other types of awards focused on the mechanisms of DNA replication, recombination and/or mutagenesis and repair. Candidates should have expertise in the use of state-of-the-art molecular genetics and/or genomics-based approaches to elucidate mechanistic aspects of DNA metabolism, gene expression or related cellular processes. Familiarity with NIH extramural funding as an applicant, reviewer or NIH scientific administrator is a plus, and outstanding communications skills are a must.

The position is in the Genetic Mechanisms Branch of NIGMS’ Division of Genetics and Developmental Biology. Please see the NIH HSA Website for position requirements and detailed application procedures. Note that this is a global recruitment for program officer positions throughout NIH. In the application materials, be sure to emphasize aspects of your training, expertise and research interests that make it clear you’re a good fit for what we’re looking for, as described above.

The vacancy announcement closes on September 2.

Not looking for a position right now? Please help us out by forwarding this information to others who might be interested.

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Training and Biomedical Workforce Update

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Request for Information (RFI) screenshotAs you know from a previous post, in April we issued Investing in the Future: NIGMS Strategic Plan for Biomedical and Behavioral Research Training. Since then, several NIGMS working groups have been very busy devising practical ways to implement the plan’s 15 action items. Last month, we brought together about 25 stakeholders—training grant directors, other university researchers, deans, department chairs and others—to give us a reality check on some of our proposals. We were gratified to see that we are on course to implement most of the measures the plan calls for by early 2012.

In a complementary effort, the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director established a working group to examine and develop a model for the future of the biomedical research workforce in the United States. To inform the working group in its deliberations, NIH has just issued a request for information (RFI). I encourage you to respond to the RFI and send in your input by October 7 to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfi_files/bmw/add.cfm.

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NIH Common Fund Input Request

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NIH Common FundThe NIH Common Fund supports trans-NIH programs in strategic areas to address roadblocks and catalyze progress in biomedical research. Two Common Fund programs are the Pioneer Award and New Innovator Award, which I just posted about.

Each year, NIH asks internal and external scientists and stakeholders to identify new ideas for Common Fund programs. NIH is now seeking broader input on the proposed concepts to help shape them into new programs for 2013. The feedback period is open until September 14.

For more information about the Common Fund and its current programs, read this recent blog post from NIH’s Sally Rockey.

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NIH Director’s Award Programs Keep ‘Pioneering’ and ‘Innovating’

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NIH Director’s Pioneer AwardNIH recently conducted an evaluation of the short-term outcome of the NIH Director Pioneer’s Award program, which started in 2004 and is managed by NIGMS. The report was positive and confirmed that the research supported by the program truly has been pioneering, not only in pursuing highly creative and often unconventional approaches but also in leading to additional “high-risk, high-reward” programs at NIH and other funding agencies.

We hope to see many more highly innovative ideas submitted for the next Pioneer Award application cycle that is now under way. Applications are due October 7, 2011.

NIH Director’s New Innovator Award

The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award program, also managed by NIGMS, is accepting applications until October 14, 2011. This program is designed for early stage investigators at U.S. institutions who have not yet obtained an NIH R01 or similar grant.

For more information and links to the requests for applications, see the Pioneer Award Web site and the New Innovator Award Web site.

As I’ve written before, one of my favorite elements of these programs is the annual symposium, scheduled this year for September 20-21 at the Doubletree Bethesda Hotel near the NIH campus. The meeting is free and doesn’t require registration, so if you’re in the area, I encourage you to join us for talks and poster sessions by Pioneer and New Innovator awardees. If you can’t make it in person, you can view the platform presentations after the meeting on the NIH Videocast site.

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Planning Grants Now Available for Clinical Trials of High Relevance to the NIGMS Mission

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NIGMS supports a limited number of investigator-initiated clinical trials in selected areas related to its mission, including trauma, burn and peri-operative injury; wound healing; sepsis; and anesthesiology and peri-operative pain.

We will now offer planning grants (see PAR-11-287) to enable the assembly of the organizational elements and documentation needed for a clinical trial R01 application. This will also permit early peer review of the scientific rationale of a proposed trial.

Before applying for a planning grant, we strongly recommend consulting with the appropriate NIGMS program staff listed in the funding opportunity announcement to determine whether the goal of the proposed trial aligns with the NIGMS mission and scientific priorities.

Letters of intent for the planning grants are due by September 24, 2011, and applications are due by October 24, 2011. We will accept subsequent submissions on the same dates in 2012 and 2013.

As this planning grant program proceeds, we will assess its value to applicants, and we welcome your feedback at any time. For more information, please see the NIGMS Web site on Clinical Studies and Trials.