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Summaries of Meetings
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2nd Annual National Wear Red Day: Taking Women's Health to Heart National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council’s Fall Meetings
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The
NHLBI is collaborating with national and local partners to proclaim the first
Friday during American Heart Month (February 4, 2005) as National Wear Red
Day. Show your support by wearing red to raise awareness that more American
women die of heart disease than any other cause. For more information on women
and heart disease and ideas on how to raise awareness in your community, visit
The Heart Truth.
Dr. Barbara Alving noted that two NHLBI programs are recognized officially in September—the Sickle Cell Disease Program and the Cholesterol Education Program.
In the current period of “budget flattening,” the Institute is trying to maintain its funding line for traditional research grants (R01s). In FY 2004 the Institute funded unsolicited R01s through the 25.0 percentile. The Institute expects to issue fewer initiatives in the coming year and will be investigating how to increase efficiency in its clinical trials.
Dr. Charles Peterson presented an overview of the Institute’s sickle cell disease research program. Dr. Elizabeth Nabel highlighted three clinical research areas of major growth at the NIH: stem cell research, sickle cell anemia and pulmonary complications, and cardiothoracic surgery. Dr. Robert Balaban described three ongoing intramural research projects that are using discovery-based tools to fill in the “gaps” in our knowledge about the cardiovascular system. Dr. Warren Leonard reported on research undertaken in his lab on the role of defective cytokine signaling in severe combined immunodeficiency.
At the conclusion of the presentations, Dr. Alving and several NHLBI staff members summarized ways in which the NHLBI fosters interaction between research communities within and outside the NIH—for example, through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements and programs like the Programs for Genomic Applications.
Dr. Lawrence Friedman updated Council members on the NIH Roadmap. Dr. James Kiley presented an overview of the Institute’s Clinical Research Networks. Dr. Robert Lemanske, Jr., Council member and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Hospital, discussed the work of two asthma-related networks—the Asthma Clinical Research Network and the Childhood Asthma Research and Education Network.
Dr. Carl Roth updated the Council on recent policy changes regarding program project grants (P01s) and grant applications with direct costs of $500,000 or more in any one year.
During the closed portion of the meeting, the Council concurred on the award of 104 grants for a total cost of $42,383,000.
Dr. Barbara Alving thanked the five members who are retiring from the Council: Dr. Melissa Austin, Ms. Sue Byrnes, Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, Dr. Ananda Prasad, and Dr. Pearl Toy. She welcomed the five new Council members who began their terms on November 1, 2004: Dr. Charles T. Esmon, Dr. Katherine High, Ms. J. Hoxi Jones, Dr. Jeffrey McCullough, and Dr. Patricia Wahl.
Representatives from the NHLBI Advisory Committees spoke about the roles of
their committees in the Institute:
• Dr. Shelly Carter, Clinical Trials Review Committee
• Dr. Pamela Davis, Board of Scientific Counselors
• Dr. Cheryl Hillery, Heart, Lung, and Blood Program Project Review Committee
• Dr. Theodore Wun, Sickle Cell Disease Advisory Committee
Ms. Sandra Gault gave an overview of the budget. The President’s
FY 2005 budget request for the NHLBI, which totals $2,964.0 million, represents
a 3.0 percent increase over last year and is the same total amount as the House
Allowance; the Senate Allowance totals $2,985.9 million and represents a 3.6
percent increase.
The Center for Scientific Review (CSR), NIH, organizes the peer review groups that evaluate the majority of research grant applications sent to the NIH. Dr. Michael Martin, CSR, discussed their projects and activities to improve organizational structure and functioning.
Dr. Alving described the Institute’s plans to work with the Pan American Health Organization to support cardiovascular disease prevention and control in Latin America and the Caribbean region. Dr. Paul Sorlie presented demographic and health information on the Hispanic population in the United States.
Dr. Stephen Mockrin discussed the future direction of systems biology programs within the NHLBI and other Federal agencies.
Twelve new initiatives that were reviewed by the Board of Extramural Advisors in September were presented to the Council, which supported all of them.
During the closed portion of the meeting, the Council concurred on the award of 259 grants for a total cost of $106,282,000.
The next NHLBAC meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on February 10, 2005. It is open to the public and will be held in NIH Building 31C, Conference Room 10.
The Institute thanks Ms. Sue Byrnes, member of the NHLBAC and director of the LAM Foundation, for her efforts in preparing this summary. Full minutes of Council meetings and summaries of the initiatives are available.
Date: February 1 - 28
Dates: February 2 - 4
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Dates: February 10 and June 16
Location: Building 31C, Conference Room 10, NIH Campus, Bethesda,
MD.
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Meetings are open to the public.
Date: February 14
Dates: March 28 - April 3
Dates: April 8 - 10
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio