The
National Center on Sleep Disorders Research (NCSDR) was established
within The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in 1993.
As a research, advocacy and coordinating center, it is responsible for
conducting and supporting research, training, health information dissemination,
and other activities related to sleep disorders, and coordinating sleep-related
programs with other NIH components, Federal agencies, and public entities.
The Director of
the NCSDR, NHLBI, also serves as Chair of the Trans-NIH Sleep Research
Coordinating Committee (SRCC). The 1996 National Sleep Disorders Research
Plan, developed under the leadership of the NCSDR and the Trans-NIH
SRCC, has been an important resource and stimulus for progressive expansion
of sleep-related programs within NHLBI and the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) (see Appendix C). Indeed, since 1996 sleep-related initiatives
totaling more than more than $110 million have been funded and the total
for all sleep-related research grants within NIH has doubled.
To build on the achievements
of the past 6 years and identify new opportunities for progress, we
embarked on a comprehensive revision of the 1996 Plan, reviewing accomplishments,
remaining knowledge gaps, promising new scientific directions, and unforeseen
new challenges. A Task Force, consisting of fourteen basic science and
clinical research scientists who represent a broad interdisciplinary
range of biomedical expertise, was appointed to undertake this task.
Its members are:
David P. White, MD, Chair
Thomas Balkin, PhD
Gene Block, PhD*
Daniel Buysse, MD
David F. Dinges, PhD
David Gozal, MD
Steve Henriksen, PhD
Hannah C. Kinney, MD
Carol A. Landis, DNSc, RN*
Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD*
Judith A. Owens, MD
Jerry M. Siegel, PhD
Esther Sternberg, MD
Debra E. Weese-Mayer, MD
*Member, 2002 Sleep Disorders Research Advisory Board
(SDRAB)
The 2003 Revised
Sleep Disorders Research Plan submitted by this Task Force and approved
by the Sleep Disorders Research Advisory Board (SDRAB) summarizes the
dramatic expansion in interdisciplinary sleep-related research and resulting
new knowledge achieved since the original 1996 Plan. The sleep research
recommendations should serve as a valuable stimulus and guide to researchers
in many disciplines for prioritizing and planning future research directions
that will lead to expanding knowledge of the inter-relationships between
sleep, health maintenance, and disease prevention.
Claude Lenfant, MD
Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
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