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‘Time Is Right’
Teleconferences Illuminate NCATS Creation Process |
By Rich McManus |
Back-to-back teleconferences on Feb. 23 shed light on both the mission of, and rationale
for creating, a new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
and making it operational by next Oct. 1.
At both a late-morning meeting-by-phone of the Scientific Management Review
Board and a subsequent telephone media availability, NIH director Dr. Francis Collins
emphasized two themes in defending the NCATS proposal: it will “advance the discipline
of translational science and catalyze the development of novel diagnostics and
therapeutics,” he said.
Collins explained that NIH has a long history of conducting both translational science
and drug development; the AIDS drug AZT and cancer drug Taxol, for example,
were developed by NIH-supported investigators. He also cited a recent paper in the
New England Journal of Medicine showing that, from 1990 to 2007, one-fifth of all new
molecular entities submitted to the FDA for priority review as potential therapies were
discovered by NIH intramural or extramural scientists.
Collins added that all 27 institutes and centers “have been involved for quite some
time” in translational research and that a 2010 survey of the field showed “more than
550 activities involving drugs, vaccines, biologics and devices” in NIH’s research portfolio.
more…
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For Many Soldiers, War Doesn’t Stop After They Arrive Home |
By Valerie Lambros |
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Combat veteran Todd Bowers speaks at NIH. |
The nation has been at war for nearly 10 years,
and those who have been fighting have borne a
disproportionate burden of this responsibility
for the country.
Only about one-half of 1 percent of the population
is in the armed forces, which means
a majority of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have endured multiple combat
deployments.
Some don’t return, but the ones who do are
often not the same.
A recent National Institute of Mental Health
Director’s Innovation Speaker Series lecture
offered listeners a sample of what today’s warfare
is, what it does to service members and
what we can do to bring them home both physically
and mentally. more…
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