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Feedback Loop Feedback: Tell Us What You Want

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The Feedback Loop blog, with its 165 posts and 418 comments, has become an important tool for communicating with you.

As the blog enters its third year, we will continue to use it to share news of NIGMS funding opportunities, meetings and activities, job openings and grant-related changes. But, as with any blog, we really want to generate posts that spark an open dialogue.

Tell us what posts you want to read by e-mailing me, adding a comment here or using the “Suggest a Post” option near the top of the site. Is there a policy or process we can demystify, a trend we can explain or an area of funding we should highlight? You can propose any topic that might interest our broader NIGMS grantee and applicant audience. While you’re at it, you can also tell us what you don’t want to read about!

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Council Tribute to Director Berg

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At today’s National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council meeting, member Howard Garrison offered the following statement to Jeremy Berg on behalf of the entire Council:

“In appreciation of your 7 years of leadership at NIGMS, the members of the Council express their profound gratitude to you for your distinguished service to science and the nation. We recognize your outstanding work in the pursuit of excellence in research and education, mentoring and advocacy for basic research. Your willingness to deal directly with challenging issues has earned you our respect and admiration. It has been a pleasure and an honor to work with you, and we will miss you. We wish you continued success in your new endeavors.”

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Implementation Under Way for Training Strategic Plan

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Strategic Plan for Biomedical and Behavioral Research TrainingWe have just posted the final version of Investing in the Future: National Institute of General Medical Sciences Strategic Plan for Biomedical and Behavioral Research Training. Fifteen months in the making, the plan reflects our long-standing commitment to research training and the development of a highly capable, diverse scientific workforce.

In an earlier post, I shared the plan’s four key themes.

As you’ll see, the plan considers training in the broadest sense, including not just activities supported on training grants and fellowships, but also those supported through research grants. It strongly encourages the development of training plans in all R01 and other research grant applications that request support for graduate students or postdoctoral trainees. And it endorses the use of individual development plans for these trainees as well as the overall importance of mentoring.

Finally, the plan acknowledges that trainees may pursue many different career outcomes that can contribute to the NIH mission.

My thanks to the dedicated committee of NIGMS staff who developed the plan and to the hundreds of investigators, postdocs, students, university administrators and others who took the time to give us their views throughout the planning process.

We’ve already started implementing the plan’s action items. While there are some that we can address on our own, others will require collaboration. We will again be reaching out to our stakeholders, and we look forward to continued input from and interactions with them to achieve our mutual goals.

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Preview Our New Web Site Design

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Redesigned NIGMS Web siteA 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 Link to external web site and Facebook Link to external web site.

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.

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High-Resolution Excitement at the 25th AIDS-Related Structural Biology Meeting

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HIV Poster. Image copyright David S. Goodsell, RCSB PDB, www.pdb.org

 

Image copyright David S. Goodsell, RCSB PDB, www.pdb.org

An exceptional array of structural biologists, cell biologists, virologists and other researchers gathered at NIH late last month to discuss achievements, applications and future directions in AIDS-related structural biology. The group was attending the 25th Annual Meeting of the Groups Studying the Structures of AIDS-Related Systems and Their Application to Targeted Drug Design.

I was extraordinarily impressed by the quality of the science, the passion with which it was presented and the interactive culture of the community.

The meeting began with a keynote address by Steve Harrison of Harvard Medical School. He provided valuable historical perspective and then outlined major challenges facing the field. Two days later, the event concluded with a provocative talk by Manuel Navia of Oxford Bioscience Partners about the economics of bringing new lead compounds through the drug development pipeline.

In between were sessions on the HIV life cycle, HIV host-pathogen interactions, imaging, latency, viral host recognition and structure-based drug design and resistance. There were also lively poster sessions showcasing more than 70 projects.

Approximately 2.8% of the NIGMS budget supports research related to AIDS, which includes individual grants, program projects, centers and institutional training grants.

A major focus of our current AIDS-related structural biology efforts is three P50 Centers for the Determination of Structures of HIV/Host Complexes. With cofunding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, we support the Center for HIV Protein Interactions at the University of Pittsburgh; the Center for the Structural Biology of Cellular Host Elements in Egress, Trafficking, and Assembly of HIV at the University of Utah; and the HIV Accessory and Regulatory Complexes Center at the University of California, San Francisco. These centers use a comprehensive, collaborative approach that engages the larger biological community involved in HIV-cell complex research.

Because the funding initiative for the P50 centers expires next year, we solicited feedback on the program from meeting attendees. We also asked them about emerging scientific opportunities in the field and the best way to move forward. We welcome your input on these topics, too. We’ll talk more about future of NIGMS AIDS-related funding opportunity announcements at the May 2011 meeting of the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council.

Although many scientific questions remain, the 25th anniversary meeting underscored how basic research on the structure of HIV-1 and interacting host proteins has significantly increased our understanding of virus biology and informed structure-based therapeutic approaches.

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Inspired by Stellar Student Scientists

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Intel Science Talent SearchI recently had the pleasure of attending the awards ceremony for this year’s Intel Science Talent Search. Before the award announcements, I enjoyed visiting the posters of many of the 40 finalists. These high school students displayed impressive knowledge and passion for their projects, many of which were quite sophisticated. A number of the finalists were even savvy enough to test my understanding so they could pitch their presentation to me at an appropriate level.

A highlight of the evening was definitely the award presentations themselves. The winners were clearly thrilled to be recognized among an incredibly accomplished group of young scientists. The speakers—who included Elizabeth Marincola Link to external web site, president of the Society for Science & the Public, which runs the Science Talent Search program; Paul Otellini Link to external web site, president and CEO of Intel; Miles O’Brien, who covers science on the PBS NewsHour; and one of the students, selected by his peers—uniformly stressed the importance of communicating the excitement and value of science to the public.

This is a good reminder to all of us in the scientific community about our responsibility to reach out broadly to explain what we do and why we do it in understandable terms that can inform the public and potentially inspire new members of future generations of scientists.

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The Search Is On for a New NIGMS Director

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As co-chair of the search committee for a new NIGMS Director, I want to tell you about the committee and ask for your help in identifying candidates for this critical position.

The committee members are:

  • Harold Varmus, Director, National Cancer Institute (co-chair)
  • Story Landis, Director, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (co-chair)
  • Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Eric Green, Director, National Human Genome Research Institute
  • Roderic Pettigrew, Director, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
  • Carol Greider, Professor, Johns Hopkins University
  • Stan Fields, Professor, University of Washington
  • Steven McKnight, Professor, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Joan Steitz, Professor, Yale University

Not surprisingly, we’re looking for an exceptional leader with strategic vision and a distinguished record of research and management achievements. NIH Director Francis Collins met with us last week and emphasized the need to find an outstanding person who can speak compellingly about the importance of basic research, can direct the Institute’s efforts to support exciting research across a broad range of disciplines and is committed to fulfilling the Institute’s mission of training the next generation of scientists.

For more about the job qualifications, how to apply and other details, see the official vacancy announcement at http://www.jobs.nih.gov/vacancies/executive/nigmsdirector.htm.

The application receipt deadline is April 29, 2011.

Please share this information with others who might be interested.

UPDATE: The application receipt deadline has been extended to May 13, 2011.

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Collaborative Science Supplement Requests – Next Deadline Is in May

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Have an idea for a great collaboration that will advance your NIGMS-funded research project? If your current award has active funding through at least November 30, 2012, you may be eligible to jump-start your idea with an administrative supplement for collaborative science. The next submission deadline is May 15, 2011.

To ensure that your project is appropriate for this program, please review the funding opportunity announcement. You should also discuss the project idea with your NIGMS program director before preparing an application. For general questions about the program, contact me or Marion Zatz.

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Wanted: Program Director, Genetic Mechanisms

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We’re looking for a program director (also known as a “health scientist administrator/program officer”) to oversee research grants and other activities related to mechanistic aspects of one or more of the following areas: DNA replication, recombination, mutagenesis and repair; gene expression; protein synthesis; or related cellular processes. Candidates should have expertise in state-of-the-art genetics, molecular biology and/or genomics. The position is in the Genetic Mechanisms Branch of our Division of Genetics and Developmental Biology.

Please see the NIH HSA Web site for position requirements and detailed application procedures. Note that this is a global recruitment for program officer positions throughout NIH. To be considered for the genetic mechanisms position in NIGMS, be sure to emphasize aspects of your training, expertise and research interests that make it clear that you’re a good fit for what we’re looking for, as described above.

If you’re interested, act quickly, as this vacancy announcement closes on March 14, 2011.

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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Apply for a Scientific Review Job in NIGMS

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We’re advertising for a scientific review officer to oversee the peer review of applications for a broad range of research and training programs, including programs aimed at increasing the diversity of the scientific workforce. We particularly seek someone with expertise in biochemistry, biophysics, computational biology and bioinformatics, and/or pharmacology to join our busy and interactive scientific review team, but the job involves setting up and managing review groups across the entire range of biomedical, clinical and behavioral fields we support.

For details on the position and application process, see the NIH HSA Web site. The vacancy announcement closes on March 14, 2011.