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Community Liaison Council Meeting Minutes
July 15, 2004, 4–5:45 p.m.
Natcher Conference Center, Room D
National Institutes of Health
DRAFT

HANDOUTS

  • Agenda
  • June 17, 2004 CLC Meeting Minutes
  • NIH Roadmap for Medical Research (Slide copies)
  • NEWS2USE, Issue 7, July 2004 (Office of Research Services)

WELCOME

Tom Gallagher, Director, Office of Community Liaison (OCL), Office of the Director (OD), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Co-Chair, Community Liaison Council (CLC), welcomed members and guests.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dr. Gallagher reminded the members that there would be no CLC meeting in August. He said that the next meeting would be on September 16, 2004.

Presentation on the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research
by Dushanka Kleinman, D.D.S., M.Sc.D., Assistant Director for Roadmap Coordination, OD, NIH

Dr. Gallagher remarked that NIH Director, Elias Zerhouni, M.D., had initiated a project to create a Roadmap setting priorities for medical research in the 21st century.

[The NIH Roadmap is an integrated plan to deepen our understanding of biology, stimulate interdisciplinary research teams, and reshape clinical research to accelerate medical discovery and improve people's health http://nihroadmap.nih.gov.]

Dr. Gallagher introduced Dr. Kleinman, Assistant Director for Roadmap Coordination, to provide information about the Roadmap's development and progress to date. Dr. Kleinman said that Dr. Zerhouni had initiated this project to address evolving public health challenges, to rapidly increase the pace of discoveries, to disseminate the best science practices by transferring innovations to health care providers, and to develop more rapid translation from labs to patients and back. She noted that current public health challenges included the change from acute illnesses predominating to chronic conditions that now demand most medical resources, the aging of the population, health disparities (differences in both access to medical treatment and in the quality of treatment received), emerging and re-emerging diseases (e.g., SARS), and biodefense.

Dr. Kleinman said that the Roadmap was conceived by Dr. Zerhouni, and developed by the directors of the 27 NIH institutes, centers, and program offices and by participants from stakeholder organizations, scientists within and outside the NIH, and health care providers. She explained that during a series of five meetings, discussions had centered on today's scientific challenges, roadblocks to progress, how to overcome the roadblocks, and identifying what could not be accomplished by any single institute but was the responsibility of the NIH as a whole. Their questions and discussions focused on finding the most compelling initiatives—those that pursued by the NIH from 2004 through 2014 would have the most impact on the progress of medical research. In this process, three major themes emerged: new pathways to discovery, research teams of the future, and re-engineering the clinical research enterprise. Their overarching question became "Can the NIH afford NOT to do it?"

Dr. Kleinman went on to explain that the Roadmap included a new framework of priorities, a set of initiatives focusing on the quality of a healthy life for people globally, and a vision for a more efficient and productive system of biomedical and behavioral research. She stressed that other challenges and opportunities had emerged from this process, including how clinical research information was recorded, new standards for clinical research protocols, modern information technology platforms for research, new models of cooperation between NIH and patient advocates, and new strategies to re-energize the clinical research workforce.

New Pathways to Discovery
Dr. Kleinman described new pathways to discovery that were centered on basic research challenges. The workforce needed to find new ways to work as teams and partners. She cited initiatives that combined different scientific disciplines, for example, the National Centers for Biomedical Computing, which comprise computer and computational scientists and experimental and clinical biomedical and behavioral researchers. Dr. Kleinman mentioned software yet to be developed that would acquire and manipulate databases and enable data and sample sharing across studies and institutes. By enhancing the efficiencies of clinical research networks through informatics and other technologies, she suggested, researchers would be better able to broaden the scope of their inquiries. Nanomedicine would integrate biomolecular processes into therapy development and would include new tools and a vocabulary for shared use by engineers and biologists.

The potential outcomes include, according to Dr. Kleinman, the development of research tools such as molecular libraries, imaging probes, and novel assays that can recognize advanced diseases; the discovery of biological markers to monitor disease progression and predict treatment response; and the identification and validation of novel biological targets for therapeutics development.

Research Teams of the Future
Dr. Kleinman described the initiative of creating exploratory centers for interdisciplinary research. These centers would be encouraged to form teams of biomedical researchers and practitioners, economists, physicists, mathematicians, sociologists, engineers, and others. Such interdisciplinary teams could take previously unexplored avenues to solve the puzzles of complex diseases and conditions and would find new ways to maximize creativity.

Dr. Kleinman noted that the National Centers for Biomedical Computing would function as incubators, conducting core research and developing and deploying tools designed to solve particular biomedical problems. The establishment of Driving Biological Projects will allow experimental biomedical and behavioral researchers to interact with and drive the computational research in the Centers, and provide the means to begin cutting-edge projects for which no outside funding is yet available.

She also noted an initiative named the NIH Director's Pioneer Award Program that encourages innovation, risk taking, and new applications and gives researchers the freedom to set their own research agendas. She said that this initiative offered $500,000 per year for five years in support of exceptionally creative individual scientists.

Reengineering Clinical Research
Another program that Dr. Kleinman described was the trans-NIH Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Program (K12), which supports up to five years of training for the development of investigators from a variety of disciplines. This initiative offers project-specific training, core didactic courses, mentored research, experience in team settings, tuition support, and protection of time for faculty and mentors to devote to the program.

As a means to reengineer the clinical research enterprise, the NIH has established an investment goal for translational research to stimulate the bed-bench interface. This goal is to make a sufficient investment in a modest number of programs that facilitate research at various institutions or regional translational research centers. Within the NIH, Dr. Kleinman noted that some institutes lack established networks. The plan supports the creation of networks that would link institutes.

[Another aspect of this reengineering process is the integration of clinical research networks. At the core of this vision is the need to develop new partnerships of research with organized patient communities, community-based health care providers, and academic researchers. This also includes the need to build better integrated networks of academic centers linked to a qualified body of community-based physicians who care for groups of patients interested in working with researchers sufficiently large to quickly develop and test new interventions http://nihroadmap.nih.gov.]

Dr. Kleinman stressed the importance of streamlining the basic research to clinical trial process, including testing the safety of molecules and novel therapies, and the transfer of research to the delivery of care. This requires that discoveries be quickly transformed into drugs, treatments, or methods for prevention. A National Electronic Clinical Trials/Research Network (NECTAR), promoting "communities of research," would be created and linked using existing networks to share common data standards, informatics, and to address questions beyond their traditional scope.

Dr. Kleinman said that one percent of the total NIH budget has been earmarked for the Roadmap initiatives for the next five years. Strategic initiatives to be funded under the NIH Roadmap would address critical roadblocks and knowledge gaps that currently constrain rapid progress in biomedical research. She emphasized the big return expected on this big investment and the need for regular progress evaluation. Dr. Kleinman said that there needed to be an intense understanding of the benefits of this undertaking by all those involved.

Dr. Gallagher thanked Dr. Kleinman for her presentation.

Questions and Discussion
Ginny Miller, Wyngate Citizens Association, noted that this concept redefines the mission of the NIH. She wondered whether there was competition among the 27 institutes. While directors had discretion over institute funds, Dr. Kleinman answered that together they had decided these initiatives were the responsibility of the NIH as a whole. The Roadmap would be a unique effort that no institute, center, or other entity could carry out, either alone or in a group, and it would benefit the entire NIH.

Dr. Gallagher noted that this collaborative initiative would promote a significant change in the way the NIH did business. He added that a vital skill today is working well with others. Ralph Schofer, Maplewood Citizens Association, commented favorably on Dr. Kleinman's report and the accompanying slide presentation. He noted that it was refreshing to see that the NIH had looked at the overall means of achieving success. Dr. Kleinman noted that each institute had submitted proposals, and each had been evaluated in terms of their potential success. Of the Roadmap, Mr. Schofer said, "It's remarkable."

J. Paul Van Nevel, NIH Alumni Association, wondered whether future budget cuts would affect the support of this initiative. Dr. Kleinman said that appropriation and authorization extended for the next two years and that grants had been initiated for this and the next fiscal year. She said the NIH would watch this closely. However, as Dr. Zerhouni remarked, "There is no wrong time to do the right thing."

Tom Robinson, Parkwood Residents Association, asked Dr. Kleinman to elaborate on nanomedicine. Dr. Kleinman said this initiative was an opportunity to look at the emerging miniaturization technology. A partnership of the physical and biologic sciences would study biosystems from the molecular level up. She said that this technology had tremendous potential in the development of nanomedical tools that would allow scientists to scan for the presence of infectious agents and develop miniature devices to destroy them, or to diagnose, treat, and prevent a wide range of diseases.

Dr. Gallagher remarked that he wanted the community to be informed about the wonderful scientific work being done on the campus.

Presentation on the NIH Reforestation Plan
by Lynn Mueller, Chief, Grounds Maintenance and Landscaping Team, Facilities Operations Branch, Division of Property Management, NIH

Lynn Mueller Chief, Grounds Maintenance and Landscaping Team, NIH, told the CLC that during his 26-year career at the NIH he became the leader of the Grounds Maintenance and Landscaping Team in 1991. He said that he had frequently answered individual queries about trees on the campus; and he thought that it would be useful to have a publication to provide this information. Mr. Mueller passed out NEWS2USE, a newsletter produced by the NIH Office of Research Services (ORS). Referring to his newsletter article, "Saving Trees While Construction Blooms," he noted the tree policy of the NIH's Office of Research Facilities Development and Operations (ORF). He said that campus trees were protected even when construction was ongoing. Under this policy, he said, no tree could be removed without being examined. He added that trees found to be in decline included those with core or root rot and crown hazards.

Mr. Mueller said that the tree preservation policy has been documented since 1991 in the NIH Master Plan and has been presented to the National Capital Planning Commission. The policy requires that any tree lost on the campus be replaced on a one-for-one basis with a tree of three-inch diameter, usually of the same native species. Mr. Mueller reported that during the planning of construction projects the architects, engineers, and landscapers presented a component that assessed the impact on mature trees. At the outset, he said the objective was to try to save existing trees by leaving them in place or by transplanting them.

Mr. Mueller reported that the NIH has 7,000 trees. He brought a diagram displaying the location and size of each tree on campus and the corresponding identification number tagged on each tree. He said that from 1991 to 2003 there was a net gain of trees: The landscaping team planted 2,759 more trees than were lost. During 2004 alone, an additional 1,170 trees had been planted—a net gain of 1,166 native trees. Except for 50 mature trees, he said, seedlings had been planted along the restored creek bed in the northeast quadrant near Building 21 and Rockville Pike. He noted that this area would not be mowed because it was part of a conservation zone. He added that soon many native plants would sprout.

Questions and Discussion
Ms. Miller asked the size of a seedling. Mr. Mueller said that those with a diameter less than one inch and less than knee-high were counted as seedlings. Ms. Miller asked Mr. Mueller whether seedlings were purchased to conserve funds and if he had enough funds in his budget to cover the costs of these projects. Mr. Mueller answered that he had to justify landscaping expenditures and that he had sufficient funds to purchase materials. He noted that except for government personnel inspections, the landscaping and maintenance work was contracted out.

Mr. Schofer inquired about the sycamore trees near the old tennis court. Mr. Mueller said the soil had become dry during recent droughts, when the county had imposed water restrictions. Because the trees were located at the top of a hill, the lack of water had caused their decline. Mr. Schofer asked what commercial products were used on plants. Mr. Mueller said that RoundUp was the only herbicide used and that some plants were treated with Safer Soap. Otherwise, he said no pesticides or prevention products were used. Mr. Schofer asked why fungus was not treated. Mr. Mueller said the NIH had raised its tolerance and was taking an environmental approach that limited the use of pesticides and herbicides. He noted that there was a good crop of beneficial insects on campus, including preying mantises, which helped to control the pest insect population. Mr. Mueller said that the Maryland Department of Agriculture inspected each year and that their reviews and comments had been favorable.

Jonathan Ashwell, M.D., a guest NIH employee and local resident, asked about the replacement of the white oak south of the South Drive gate area at Old Georgetown Road. Mr. Mueller reported that this tree had appeared outwardly healthy, but that the Resistograph® evaluation had shown a viable perimeter only two inches thick and a rotten core. Mr. Mueller said the tree would be replaced by a water oak. In addition, Dr. Ashwell had noticed an area where foliage had been damaged on the north side of the John Edward Porter Neuroscience Research Center: He described it as a "dirt infield." Mr. Mueller explained that grounds equipment—John Deere Mules and Cushmans—were often driven along this area and not on Old Georgetown Road. He said that, regrettably, small plants had been affected by this traffic.

Nancy Hoos of Sonoma Citizens Association asked Mr. Mueller whether he kept aerial photos and records of the campus' tree canopy. Mr. Mueller said that Montgomery County monitored the percent of the county covered with trees. Dr. Gallagher noticed salt-damaged ivy near the path at Building 1, and he wondered if there was a way to prevent this. Mr. Mueller said that the materials used on campus were designated as environmentally friendly. He said that a product gentle on the landscape, magnesium chloride from the Dead Sea, was used. Mr. Mueller noted that contractors removed snow and there was thus a potential for using too much product. He said that each November he met with the crew to go over conservation procedures.

Harvey Eisen, Ph.D., Edgewood Glenwood Citizens Association, asked about removal of a tree with exposed roots that was leaning at a 30-degree angle and entangled with another tree. He said it was located west of the fence construction staging area in the southwest quadrant. To help locate its precise location, Dr. Eisen offered to look at the identification tag on the tree and report its number to Mr. Mueller.

Lucy Ozarin, M.D., Whitehall Condominium Association requested that more trees be planted on the south side of campus. Mr. Mueller thought that a few more would be planted after September 1. He said that trees would be relocated when they are dormant in November or December. Dr. Gallagher mentioned that more than 40 white pines had been planted in the southwest quadrant. Dr. Ozarin said that the area where more trees were desired was near the chain link fence east of that particular stand of pines and behind Whitehall Condominiums and the immediate neighboring condominium complex.

Mr. Mueller noted that when the perimeter fence was installed, it was woven around the trees, with a minimal loss of only four or five trees. He said that the current Northeast Tunnel project had been designed to have the least impact on the existing trees.

Dr. Gallagher thanked Mr. Mueller for his presentation.

Round Robin Discussion Items
by CLC Members

Dr. Gallagher asked if any members had items to present. Ms. Hoos asked Stella Serras-Fiotes, ORF, NIH, if she could give an update on the noise problems associated with the John Edward Porter Neuroscience Research Center and Building 37. Ms. Serras-Fiotes said there were two separate noise issues. The architects and engineers had studied the Porter research center problem and proposed a solution. A screen designed to absorb the sound was to be placed around the fan housings. The process involved designing the screen and obtaining cost estimates. Dr. Gallagher asked whether the screen would mask the stacks at the top of the center. Ms. Serras-Fiotes said that only the fan noise would be treated with the proposed screening.

Ms. Serras-Fiotes said that the NIH Division of Property Management would check noise levels in both peak and off-hours during the last two weeks of July at Building 37. She will report the results to the CLC in September. Lesley Hildebrand requested that the levels be taken during the evening and at night as well. Dr. Gallagher said that the noise was constant and often was amplified by moisture in the air. Ms. Serras-Fiotes said the levels would be checked when the background traffic noise was at its lowest level. Mr. Schofer said Montgomery County was responsible for measuring noise levels according to EPA requirements. Dr. Ashwell asked whether the measurements would determine if there was a problem or how to deal with the problem. Ms. Serras-Fiotes answered that the measurements would be used to pinpoint the problem and to lead to a solution. Dr. Ashwell said he had been at the top level of Building 37 and he knew it was the source of the noise. He wondered what would happen if the engineer did not find the problem. Ms. Hoos added that there were numerous types of noise and ways to characterize them—not only in decibels. Although these noises did not exceed county guidelines, Ms. Serras-Fiotes said that the NIH would address the noise concerns.

Ms. Hildebrand asked if it had been determined whether the Visitors' Parking Facility would be available outside of business hours for use by non-NIH visitors. Ms. Serras-Fiotes said that remained on the list of items yet to be addressed. Ms. Hildebrand asked Dr. Gallagher if he had an update on neighbors' access to the campus after the perimeter fence gates became operational. Dr. Gallagher reiterated that the fence and gates would not be operational before October. Details of non-government employee access to campus were being worked on and considered. Ms. Serras-Fiotes said that operational procedures were under review and that the gates and procedures would be tested and monitored before implementation. Dr. Gallagher said information about closure and operations would be available in advance and would be communicated both internally to NIH employees and externally to the community.

Ms. Serras-Fiotes announced that work on the West Drive entrance would begin on July 19 and the site work on the small security check facility and driveway expansion would start July 26. She said that construction traffic would access the area via West Drive and that hours of operation, dust, and noise were planned to create only minimal disruption.

Mr. Schofer asked for assurance that the wooden building near the multilevel parking facility for Buildings 31 and 33 would be removed upon completion of the nearby construction. Ms. Serras-Fiotes said the structure had been built solidly to house mockups of labs to be built in Building 33 and that it would be removed when this phase was completed.

Dr. Ozarin asked whether the NIH would soon be painting the exterior side of the fence that faces the back of the Whitehall Condominium property. Anthony Clifford, ORF, NIH, said that this project had been discussed earlier that day. He said that the fence would either be painted or that section of it would be replaced this year. He thought the project could be timed to coincide with work on the south lawn drainage problem. Mr. Clifford said there was soil erosion at the south perimeter fence caused by water run off from the parking lot at Building 41. He said that a new catch basin and gravel field would be installed, followed by landscaping of the hill and regrading the area of erosion. Mr. Clifford offered to notify Dr. Gallagher when the fence painting or replacement project was scheduled.

Dr. Gallagher reported to Mr. Clifford that trucks had again been moved to the parking lot at Building 41. Mr. Clifford said that these surplus vehicles were to be collected by the General Services Administration, and, in the meantime, they were to be stored at the Poolesville facility instead of on the main campus.

ACTION ITEMS

  • Ms. Serras-Fiotes said she would report the results of the noise measurements and solutions to the CLC in September.
  • Mr. Clifford offered to notify Dr. Gallagher when the chain link fence project was scheduled

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 5:45 p.m.

FUTURE MEETING

The next CLC meeting is scheduled to take place September 16, 2004.

CLC Members Present

  • Lorraine Bell, Palladian Partners, Inc.
  • Harvey Eisen, Ph.D., Edgewood Glenwood Citizens Association
  • Tom Gallagher, Ph.D., OCL, OD, NIH
  • Jeanne Goldstein, Montgomery County Civic Federation
  • Lesley Hildebrand, Huntington Terrace Citizens Association
  • Nancy Hoos, Sonoma Citizens Association
  • Debra Liverpool, YMCA, Bethesda-Chevy Chase/Ayrlawn
  • Marilyn Mazuzan, Town of Oakmont
  • Ginny Miller, Wyngate Citizens Association
  • Walter Mitton, OCL, OD, NIH
  • Lucy Ozarin, M.D., Whitehall Condominium Association
  • Tom Robertson, Parkwood Residents Association
  • Sharon Robinson, OCL, OD, NIH
  • Ralph Schofer, Maplewood Citizens Association
  • Randy Schools, Recreation & Welfare Association
  • Stella Serras-Fiotes, ORF, NIH
  • Deborah Snead, Bethesda-Chevy Chase Services Center
  • J. Paul Van Nevel, NIH Alumni Association

Guests

  • Jonathan Ashwell, M.D., Sonoma Resident
  • Anthony Clifford, ORF, NIH
  • Danny Douck, Edgewood Resident
  • Sumitra Siram, representative from Congressman Van Hollen's Office
  • Chris Williams, The Gazette
  • Ron Wilson, ORS, OD, NIH