Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
Dr. Fauci opened the Thursday afternoon, January 23, session of Council by welcoming visitors to the 125th meeting.
He announced the appointment of four new Council members: Dr. Robert Couch, Mr. Stephan Lawton, Ms. Emily Spitzer, and Dr. Lowell Young.
Dr. Fauci welcomed the ad hoc Council members: Dr. Abul Abbas, Professor, Department of Pathology, Harvard University; Dr. Jack Elias, Chief Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University; Dr. Anne Gershon, Professor of Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University; Dr. Susan Pierce, Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology, Northwestern University; and Dr. Richard Whitley, Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology and Medicine, University of Alabama (Birmingham). Consideration of Minutes of Previous Meeting:
The minutes of the September 26-27, 1996 meeting were considered and approved as written.
Dates of Future Council Meetings:
May 19-20, and September 8-9, 1997; and for 1998, February 2-3, June 1-2 and September 24-25. Staff and Organizational Changes:
Within the Division of AIDS (DAIDS), Dr. James McNamara has become Chief of the Pediatric Medicine Branch in the Therapeutics Research Program. Dr. Fauci announced the departure of Dr. Mary Foulkes Chief of DAID's Biostatistics and Research Branch, who left the Institute to assume a position as Associate Director for Research at SmithKline Beecham.
Ms. Sarah Carr has been appointed Director of the Office of Policy Analysis located within the Office of the Director, NIAID. Review of Operating Procedures for FY 1997:
Operating procedures had been sent to Council members for review. No modifications were suggested, and they were approved. Budget Update:
Congress appropriated 7.6 percent more money to the Institute in FY 1997 than it did last year, enabling NIAID to craft its FY 1997 funding policy.
- Payline at the 20.0 percentile for non-AIDS applications. 24.0 for AIDS.
- 15.0 percent average reductions to new applications.
- 3.0 percent inflationary increases to existing grants.
- Bridge awards to continue.
The Institute’s success rate, is expected to increase from last year’s 31.7 percent to about 32.6 percent in FY 1997. Legislative Update:
Dr. Fauci informed Council of some of the changes in Congress that affect NIH. New chairpersons include Senator Jim Jeffords from Vermont, who chairs the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, which provides oversight and authorization to NIH, and Senator Ted Stevens, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Other:
Bridge Awards
NIAID will continue its popular bridge program next year. We will be adding two new features to our bridge award program. NIAID will: 1) make awards throughout the year versus at year-end. We will implement this change in FY 1997; and 2) fund grants in a selective pay manner versus strictly by percentile. This change will take place in FY 1998, beginning with applications going to the September 1997 council round.
Malaria Meeting
In January, a multinational malaria conference in Dakar, Senegal, drew participants from around the world. About 120 malariologists participated in the meeting sponsored by NIH, the Pasteur Institute, the Wellcome Trust, the British Medical Research Council, and others.
Attending from NIH were director Dr. Harold Varmus, DMID director Dr. John La Montagne, and staff of DMID, NIAID’s Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, and the NIH Fogarty Center.
The group split into eight focus groups to define the scientific knowledge needed to advance prevention and control and determine how to build collaborative research to obtain the necessary information.
Among the scientific initiatives that emerged are establishing collaborative research networks and enhancing Internet resources in Africa. In addition, Dr. Varmus proposed a multilateral initiative to solicit ideas for developing research networks, repositories, or collaborations. A followup meeting will likely take place in Europe in mid-summer.
AIDS Vaccine Committee (Working Group)
David Baltimore, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biology and Immunology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is chairing a new committee to find opportunities for developing an HIV vaccine.
The Nobel Prize-winning scientist heads the AIDS Vaccine Research Committee, a working group of outside experts looking at promising scientific areas and advising NIH accordingly.
Its first meeting will be on February 17, when the group will discuss how to stimulate exploratory and developmental research in HIV vaccines.
Administratively linked to the NIAID Council, the Committee will make recommendations to NIAID, the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR), and other NIH components on key scientific questions.
NIAID Compliance With NIH Clinical Trials Inclusion Guidelines
A review of the data shows that clinical research applications to NIAID and NIH as a whole were 95 percent in compliance with federal guidelines for including women and minorities in clinical trials.
The 5 percent of trials that were not in compliance were initially barred from funding. These have since been revised and now comply with the regulations. NIAID will continue to work with extramural investigators to make sure their applications are in compliance with the inclusion guidelines.
Committee Reports
Dr. Glimcher reported on the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Committee meeting held in October. The Committee discussed AIDS funding, the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group, and AIDS research at the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Warren Johnson reported on the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director meeting held in December. Major agenda items were: an update on the Clinical Center, a report on the panel looking at clinical research, a report on implementing recommendations from the Levine Panel’s evaluation of AIDS research, and reviews of Institute directors. back to top |