Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
It is a pleasure to appear before you today to discuss the activities and
accomplishments of the National Center for Research Resources. NCRR has a
unique responsibility for biomedical research infrastructure at the National
Institutes of Health. That infrastructure can be compared to a great locomotive
that transports passengers--in this case scientists who explore disease and its
remedies--toward ever-changing destinations. Investigators depend on NCRR to
create, develop, and provide the "engine" or infrastructure of modern science to
keep science moving forward.
Infrastructure takes many forms--from sophisticated instrumentation and
technologies, clinical research environments, and animal research models of
human disease, to construction and human resource-building activities. Most of
NCRR's budget supports center grants that underwrite research infrastructure at
academic medical centers and universities throughout the nation. Those centers
provide specially adapted facilities, instrumentation, and expertise to biomedical
investigators on a local, regional or national basis. NCRR-supported research
facilities and repositories serve more than 10,000 investigators nationwide.
Recent findings at NCRR-funded biomedical technology centers have
great dollar-saving potential. For example, the first magnetic resonance images
using hyperpolarized gas in living systems have been developed. This
technology produces a signal 100 to 10,000 times more powerful than traditional
MRI, with no added cost to the MRI system and only a moderate cost for
polarized gas.
NCRR is a key player in new drug discovery, design, development, and
testing as well. For example, cytomegalovirus (CMV) infects up to 70 percent
of the U.S. population and can cause life-threatening infections in
immunosuppressed individuals. Scientists using an NCRR-funded biomedical
technology resource at Cornell University have succeeded in visualizing the 3-D
structure of cytomegalovirus' protease enzyme required for CMV replication,
thereby providing a new target for antiviral drug design.
In another study, scientists recently synthesized a peptide from the sea
snail Conus magnus for use as a potential pain-reducing drug for cancer and
AIDS patients. NCRR-supported Shared Instrumentation Grants played a
prominent role in analyzing the toxins and an NCRR-supported mass
spectrometry resource in San Diego characterized the structures of conotoxins.
Clinical trials are underway at General Clinical Research Centers to assess the
effectiveness of these potential pain-reducing drugs. With more than 500 species
of sea snails, the Conus family has enormous potential for drug discovery.
Clinical investigations at NCRR-supported General Clinical Research
Centers and through the Clinical Research Initiative at several minority medical
schools advance our knowledge of how to prevent, diagnose and treat serious
health problems. For example, investigators at a Yale University GCRC used a
noninvasive imaging technique, known as single photon emission computerized
tomography, to provide additional proof that increased transmission of the
neurotransmitter dopamine causes the symptoms of schizophrenia.
Investigators at the University of Utah GCRC recently identified a gene
that, with others, controls the regularity of a person's heartbeat. By detecting
individuals who have a mutated form of this gene, physicians can prescribe
medications that protect against cardiac arrhythmias, which cause a staggering
death toll each year, even among young, apparently healthy people.
A step toward better treatment of a deadly disease took place at a GCRC
at the University of Connecticut. There, melanoma patients were immunized
with cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTLs), an approach known to attack melanoma
cells at the vaccination and distant tumor sites. In this study, investigators
induced a peptide-specific CTL response against the melanoma.
In FY 1996, the network of GCRCs hosted 7,835 investigators who
carried out 5,604 research projects--both numbers are the greatest in the
program's history. Many GCRC sites, where managed care has heavily
penetrated, have become oases for patient-oriented research. For the same
reason, several academic medical centers which currently do not have GCRCs
are actively pursuing competing for a center for their faculty to conduct patient-oriented
research.
To address the health issues which disproportionately affect under
served populations, NCRR launched the Clinical Research Initiative (CRI)
within selected Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI)-supported
institutions to enhance their clinical research infrastructure. The RCMI program
enhances the capacity of minority colleges and universities that offer doctorates
in health or health-related sciences to conduct health-related research. The CRI
provides the resources for patient-oriented research so that investigators at the
RCMI sites can more effectively compete for NIH clinical research funding.
Whether investigating cancer or an emerging infectious disease,
researchers also need a wide range of animal and other models. Almost half of
all NIH-funded grants include animal-based research. Often research is most
effectively advanced by a combination of model systems rather than by reliance
on only a few. Successful new research models include a rhesus monkey model
for Lyme disease, as well as colonies of aged monkeys for investigations of the
neurobiology and physiology of aging and Alzheimer's disease.
Centralized shared resources for genetically-altered animals and other
organisms are of great interest to the scientific community because they provide
unique models with specific genetic defects with which to determine gene
function. An economical research model is the zebrafish. This tiny creature
will allow study of genetic defects that are comparable to genetic defects in
humans. Best of all, this model is economical--the cost of supporting 1,700
zebrafish equals that of supporting 17 mice! NCRR supports a host of other
genetic stock centers, including those for the fruit fly, yeast, and round worm as
well as for induced mutant resources for mice.
NCRR also supports human resource development through two science
education programs. The Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA)
program encourages scientists to work with educators and other organizations to
improve student and public understanding of science and promote interest in
scientific careers. For example, BrainLink, a SEPA project at Baylor College of
Medicine, communicates the fun and excitement of "doing" science and
promotes healthy behaviors for youngsters in elementary and middle schools.
NCRR also supports a Minority Initiative for K-12 Teachers and High School
Students. That program's purpose is to ensure that an adequate supply of under-represented
groups enters the career pipeline for biomedical research and the
health professions.
A primary NCRR objective has been to promote accessibility to novel and
essential research tools and to support cutting-edge technologies. Breakthroughs
in basic engineering and physics can provide the research tools for health-based
research. NCRR programs will continue to foster that transition in FY 1998. For
example, the NCRR will develop and coordinate a new initiative that will focus
on understanding the structure and function of the brain and its dynamic changes
with time, the fourth dimension. To attain these goals, further development of
new imaging modalities as well as new tools for neurosimulation and modeling
are needed. Studies of the brain microvasculature, mechanisms of cell death and
studies to map concentrations of specific neurotransmitters in the brain will lead
to improved knowledge about neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's
and Alzheimer's diseases.
Another initiative will encourage development of innovative software,
algorithms, and techniques for use with high performance computers and
telecommunication facilities to increase the number of biomedical technology
resources and their applications that can be remotely accessed by investigators
across the country over the next generation of the Internet, which will be 1,000
times faster than the current Internet. Magnetic resonance imaging resources and
other modeling resources, essential for structural biology, are candidates for this
approach.
Another initiative will extend development of gene vectors for human
diseases through the National Gene Vector Laboratories. Gene vectors will be
generated for a variety of diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, immunologic
disorders, vascular diseases, AIDS, metabolic diseases and cancers. The
Regional Primate Research Centers (RPRCs) and the network of GCRCs will
host studies designed to define innovative approaches to human gene therapy. In
addition, both the GCRCs and RPRCs will host studies to define the molecular
basis for disease.
In conjunction with the regional primate research centers, investigators
will focus on the development of novel vaccines for AIDS. Studies that may
pave the way for developing vaccines against HIV in humans were recently
reported by scientists at the NCRR-supported New England Regional Primate
Research Center. Investigations with rhesus monkeys showed that vaccine
protection against intravenous challenge with simian immunodeficiency virus
(SIV), similar to its human counterpart, could be attained with live attenuated
vaccine from which certain viral genes had been deleted. These and other related
efforts will be extended to help identify an effective vaccine for HIV.
In the future, as in the past, it is important for NCRR to set priorities and
to anticipate investigators' needs to assure that appropriate research facilities and
resources are in place when investigators need them. Accordingly, this year
NCRR will update its strategic plan, first developed in 1994, and will again seek
input from its many constituencies in the scientific community. Nearly all the
actions recommended in the 1994 plan have been implemented.
Continued improvement of research "engines"--from technologies to
clinical environments, research models, construction, and human resource
development--will allow NCRR to pull many "cars" and ensure a cost-effective
biomedical research enterprise that can meet both scientific and economic
demands.
Mr. Chairman, the FY 1998 President's Budget Request for NCRR is
$333,868,000. I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
