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Mobilizing
How do scientists organize research on a new and deadly disease? In the
NIH campus laboratories in Bethesda, Maryland, charting one’s research
path and redirecting it was relatively easy: it required only the agreement
of the laboratory’s chief scientist and the Institute’s scientific
director. This allowed a diverse team of physicians and scientists at
NIH–those with expertise in cancer, in immunology, in blood sciences,
and in drug development–to quickly form collaborations early on
in the AIDS crisis. The AIDS Memorandum, an informal newsletter that
fast-tracked unpublished information, circulated among the NIH scientists
working on the disease. “My own view is that from the early days
we progressed as fast as anyone had a good idea to support,” recalls
Dr. Kenneth Sell, then scientific director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases. When Dr. Anthony S. Fauci became NIAID
director in 1984, he came to the job with a strong personal involvement
and interest in AIDS research. In addition to maintaining his own research
laboratory and clinical duties devoted to AIDS, he established a special
AIDS division within the Institute. NIAID staff oversaw the allocation
of most AIDS grants, conducted outreach activities with community groups
concerned about AIDS, started long-term studies of people with AIDS, collaborated
with the National Cancer Institute to set up a drug discovery process
for AIDS drugs, and inaugurated nationwide networks of clinical trial
sites to test the most promising drugs and vaccines. In universities and
hospitals across the nation, scientists prepared proposals for NIH funding
describing the AIDS-related research they wanted to do. After being reviewed
by other scientists, those proposals that looked most promising were awarded
NIH grants. Although this research grant process could take up to two
years, during the early years of AIDS it moved faster, particularly after
Congress allocated additional money in 1986.
The audio samples below require the Real Audio Player. To download this program, please go to: http://www.real.com/
I made the decision that we would have to switch over to research
on this disease [AIDS] because, as every month went by, I became more
convinced that we were dealing with something that was going to be
a disaster for society.
- Dr. Anthony S. Fauci
Download Audio Sample | Transcript |
The early days were really very nice because everyone was excited
and everyone wanted to figure out what was going on.
-
Dr. H. Clifford Lane
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We needed to find out what was causing it, whether it was an infectious
disease, and what the predisposing factors were.
- Dr.
Jack Whitescarver Download
Audio Sample | Transcript |
Ken [Dr. Kenneth Sell, NIAID's Scientific Director] made a great contribution
that I don't know will ever get recognized, because it wasn't a publication
or anything like that. But he saw the importance of AIDS. He put the
resources into it.
- Dr. H. Clifford Lane
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I went to [Dr.] Jim Wyngaarden [the NIH Director] with a budget that
would seem outlandish. I wanted to quadruple the amount that we were
doing in AIDS research in one year [fiscal year 1986]. I explained
to him that this increase was necessary because the AIDS epidemic
was going to explode in our faces. We had to be out front, ahead of
it.
- Dr. Anthony S. Fauci
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The other thing that was going on in parallel was Projet SIDA in
Zaire. That was a unique interaction among a number of agencies in
the government: the CDC, the NIAID, and later Walter Reed [Army Medical
Center].
- Dr. John I. Gallin Download
Audio Sample | Transcript |
Back To Top | Photography
Credits
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Drs. Thomas Folks and Guido Poli discuss
their AIDS research |
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An article in Time reflected the growing threat
of AIDS and described the government's response |
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Dr. Richard Krause (then NIAID director)
and Dr. Kenneth Sell (NIAID's scientific director) collaborated to
find the resources to further AIDS research. |
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