The NIH has a New Director

The NIH has sworn in a new director. Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD. He was a leader of the Human Genome Project. - BRH

FRANCIS S. COLLINS, M.D., PH.D., SWORN IN AS NIH DIRECTOR
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
NIH Office of the Director (OD)
For Immediate Release: Monday, August 17, 2009

CONTACT: NIH Office of Communications, 301-496-5787,

FRANCIS S. COLLINS, M.D., PH.D., SWORN IN AS NIH DIRECTOR

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., today became the 16th director of the National Institutes of Health. He was nominated to lead the NIH, the nation's premiere biomedical research agency, by President Barack Obama on July 8, and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 7.

In his July 8 nomination announcement, President Obama stated: "The National Institutes of Health stands as a model when it comes to science and research. My administration is committed to promoting scientific integrity and pioneering scientific research and I am confident that Dr. Francis Collins will lead the NIH to achieve these goals. Dr. Collins is one of the top scientists in the world, and his groundbreaking work has changed the very ways we consider our health and examine disease."

"As a scientist, physician, and passionate visionary, Dr. Collins will further NIH's ultimate mission to improve human health," said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "He is an ideal choice to lead the NIH and I look forward to working closely with him."

"I am truly honored and humbled to take the helm today of the world's leading organization supporting biomedical research," Dr. Collins said. "The scientific opportunities in both the basic and clinical realms are unprecedented, and the talent and dedication of the grantees and the staff guarantee that this will be a truly exciting era."

Dr. Collins, 59, a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project, served as director of NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) from 1993-2008. Under his direction, the Human Genome Project consistently met projected milestones ahead of schedule and under budget. This remarkable international project culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book.

In addition to his achievements as the NHGRI director, Dr. Collins' own research laboratory discovered a number of important genes, including those responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's disease, a familial endocrine cancer syndrome, and most recently, genes for type 2 diabetes and the gene that causes Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. Dr. Collins has a longstanding interest in the interface between science and faith, and has written about this in The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (Free Press, 2006), which spent many weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. He is the author of a new book on personalized medicine, The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine (HarperCollins, to be published in early 2010).

Dr. Collins received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University, and an M.D. with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to the NIH in 1993, he spent nine years on the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007.

Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D., who has served as acting NIH director since mid-October, will return to his role as NIH principal deputy director.

NIH has more than 19,000 employees and a fiscal year 2009 budget of $30.6 billion. It supports more than 325,000 research personnel at more than 3,100 institutions throughout the U.S., and around the world.

More information about Dr. Collins is available at , and a high-resolution photo is available for download at .

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit .

NEW DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING DEVICES AT THE NIH CLINICAL CENTER TO AUTOMATICALLY RECORD RADIATION EXPOSURE

It's about time we started keeping track of radiation exposure. I have seen the system fail to total up radiation exposures too many times and am fearful that there are going to be long term consequences for many people. Patients need total radiation exposure from X-rays, CT Scans, and dental X-rays tallied up each year. - BRH

NEW DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING DEVICES AT THE NIH CLINICAL CENTER TO AUTOMATICALLY RECORD RADIATION EXPOSURE

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
NIH Clinical Center (CC)
For Immediate Release: Monday, August 17, 2009

CONTACT: Bill Schmalfeldt, 301-496-2563,

NEW DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING DEVICES AT THE NIH CLINICAL CENTER TO AUTOMATICALLY RECORD RADIATION EXPOSURE

Radiology and Imaging Sciences at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center has taken a significant step to further safeguard clinical research patients at the NIH Clinical Center who are exposed to radiation during certain imaging tests. Computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET)/CT equipment purchased by the Clinical Center will now be required to routinely record radiation dose exposure in a patient's hospital-based electronic medical record.

"When a hospital or clinic patient receives a medication or a treatment, it is routinely recorded in the patient's medical record," said John I. Gallin, M.D., director of the Clinical Center, NIH's clinical research hospital in Bethesda, Md. "The Clinical Center's approach is an important first step in making it possible to more easily document and track information about a patient's exposure to radiation."

Today, electronic radiology information systems in hospitals generally do not collect or report radiation exposures. "CT and PET/ CT scanners do not currently forward data on radiation dose to our radiology information systems," said Dr. David A. Bluemke, M.D., Ph.D. Bluemke is director of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at the Clinical Center.

The risk of exposure to low doses of medical radiation from diagnostic medical-imaging tests isn't known, but very high radiation doses have the potential to cause cancer. The ability to keep track of an individual's exposure to radiation through routine imaging tests is needed so that researchers can begin to determine if these exposures pose a health risk.

"The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements reported recently that Americans received seven times more radiation exposure from medical tests in 2006 than was the case in the 1980s," said Ronald Neumann, M.D., chief of nuclear medicine and deputy associate director for imaging sciences at the Clinical Center. "CT and cardiac nuclear medicine studies accounted for much of this increased medical radiation exposure."

Ultimately, radiation dosage could become a standard element of a universal electronic medical record used to assess radiation risk from life-long medical testing, the Clinical Center radiologists said. "Recording radiation dose is technically possible and an ethical imperative," Neumann said.

"The NIH Clinical Center also will require that newly purchased equipment allows patients to record their radiation dose exposure in their own personal health record," Bluemke added. Online resources to help individuals organize their health information as a personal medical record are becoming more prevalent. Currently, patients can easily receive their diagnostic imaging studies records on CD-ROM, Bluemke said. The NIH Clinical Center's imaging program will work with vendors who supply Clinical Center imaging equipment to develop software tools to extract the examination type, date, and radiation dose exposure from the CD-ROM, for uploading to a personal health record. As both the American College of Radiology and the Radiological Society of North America have recommended, patients should keep a record of their X-ray history.

About 25,000 CT and 1,250 PET/CT scans are performed at the Clinical Center each year as part of NIH research protocols. The clinical research hospital currently houses five CT scanners, and two PET/CT scanners.

The NIH Clinical Center (CC) is the clinical research hospital for the National Institutes of Health. Through clinical research, physician-investigators translate laboratory discoveries into better treatments, therapies and interventions to improve the nation's health. For more information, visit .

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit .

NIH AND VA ANNOUNCE $7 MILLION PARTNERSHIP FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE RESEARCH AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL, VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES

More research for Dr. Drew.... and everyone needing to know more about substance abuse.

NIH AND VA ANNOUNCE $7 MILLION PARTNERSHIP FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE RESEARCH AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL, VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
For Immediate Release: Thursday, July 30, 2009

MEDIA CONTACT: Stephanie Older, 301-443-6245,

NIH AND VA ANNOUNCE $7 MILLION PARTNERSHIP FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE RESEARCH AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL, VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES
Research will focus on war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan

Washington, D.C. - Two federal departments have joined forces to create a first-time collaborative funding project to support research on substance abuse and associated problems among U.S. military personnel, veterans and their families. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, in partnership with two other NIH Institutes -- the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) -- are jointly collaborating with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), on a seven million dollar funding opportunity announcement for research in this area. NIH is the leading scientific agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

There is a growing awareness that returning military personnel -- whatever their overseas role -- need help confronting a variety of war related problems including traumatic brain injury, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and substance abuse, including tobacco, alcohol and other drugs. Many of these problems are interconnected, and contribute to individual health and family relationship crises, yet there has been little research on how to prevent and treat the unique characteristics of wartime related substance abuse issues. The funding opportunity announcement will focus on the causes, screening and identification, prevention and treatment of substance use and abuse--including alcohol, tobacco and other drugs--and associated problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Active duty military personnel and the community of veterans have sacrificed so much for our country that we owe them nothing less than the best that research can offer," said Acting NIH Director Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D.

This funding opportunity announcement was prompted by a meeting held in January to gain a better understanding of the substance abuse intervention needs of military personnel, veterans, and their families and develop recommendations for prevention and treatment research priorities in this area. This is the first post-meeting announcement and is specific to those serving, or who have served, in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and/or Operation Iraqi Freedom.


"Working in collaboration with key federal agencies, we hope to learn more about how to address the array of social and emotional problems caused by the trauma of war that bring so much pain to soldiers and their families," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow. "Even though they are no longer in combat, many of these brave men and women are now fighting substance addiction -- another dangerous enemy."

"The transition period as soldiers withdraw from battlefield stress and face the rigors of re-adjusting to life at home can be a critical turning point," said NIAAA Acting Director Kenneth Warren. "This partnership will enhance our efforts to find solutions to the complex alcohol and substance abuse problems that plague our soldiers and their families."

The grant applications submitted will be reviewed by an NIH review panel that includes scientific expertise regarding substance abuse and associated conditions. Each agency will fund grants relevant to its mission. NIDA will fund $2 million, NIAAA $2 million, NCI $1 million and the VA $2 million.

As the research evolves, the VA will look for new tools to confront a complex cascade of problems which increasingly threaten the medical and physical health of its patients.

Dr. Joel Kupersmith, the VA's chief research and development officer, comments, "VA has long supported a strong research program for veterans, and this request for applications provides the opportunity to clearly focus on essential issues encountered by the newest generation of veterans in conjunction with federal partners."

Research questions related to all phases of the deployment cycle (i.e., pre-deployment, deployment, re-integration, and separation) and all branches of the military (e.g., Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, U.S. Military Reserves, National Guard) and veterans are of interest. The deadline for grant applications is December 22, 2009.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) -- VA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) aspires to discover knowledge, develop VA researchers and health care leaders, and create innovations that advance health care for our veterans and the nation. For more information about VA Research: .

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the NIH, is the primary U.S. agency for conducting and supporting research on the causes, consequences, prevention, and treatment of alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and alcohol problems, and disseminates research findings to general, professional, and academic audiences. Additional alcohol research information and publications are available at .

NCI leads the National Cancer Program and the NIH effort to dramatically reduce the burden of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families, through research into prevention and cancer biology, the development of new interventions, and the training and mentoring of new researchers. For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI Web site at or call NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

The National Institute on Drug Abuse is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world's research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy and improve practice. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs of abuse and information on NIDA research and other activities can be found on the NIDA home page at . To order publications in English or Spanish, call NIDA's new DrugPubs research dissemination center at 1-877-NIDA-NIH or 240-645-0228 (TDD) or fax or email requests to 240-645-0227 or drugpubs@nida.nih.gov. Online ordering is available at .

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit .

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Human Connectome Project

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

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For Immediate Release Wednesday, July 15, 2009 E-mail this page Subscribe Contact: Daniel Stimson, NINDS 301-496-5751 Marsh Love, NIMH 301-443-4536 NIH Launches the Human Connectome Project to Unravel the Brain�s Connections The National Institutes of Health Blueprint for Neuroscience Research is launching a $30 million project that will use cutting-edge brain imaging technologies to map the circuitry of the healthy adult human brain. By systematically collecting brain imaging data from hundreds of subjects, the Human Connectome Project (HCP) will yield insight into how brain connections underlie brain function, and will open up new lines of inquiry for human neuroscience. Investigators have been invited to submit detailed proposals to carry out the HCP, which will be funded at up to $6 million per year for five years. The HCP is the first of three Blueprint Grand Challenges, projects that address major questions and issues in neuroscience research. The Blueprint Grand Challenges are intended to promote major leaps in the understanding of brain function, and in approaches for treating brain disorders. The three Blueprint Grand Challenges to be launched in 2009 and 2010 address: The connectivity of the adult, human brain Targeted drug development for neurological diseases The neural basis of chronic pain disorders "The HCP is truly a grand and critical challenge: to map the wiring diagram of the entire, living human brain. Mapping the circuits and linking these circuits to the full spectrum of brain function in health and disease is an old challenge but one that can finally be addressed rigorously by combining powerful, emerging technologies," says Thomas Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which is part of the NIH Blueprint. Scientists have studied the relationship between the structure and function of the human brain since the 1800s. Some parts of the brain serve basic functions such as movement, sensation, emotion, learning and memory. Others are more important for uniquely human functions such as abstract thinking. The connections between brain regions are important for shaping and coordinating these functions, but scientists know little about how different parts of the human brain connect. "Neuroscientists have only a piecemeal understanding of brain connectivity. If we knew more about the connections within the brain — and especially their susceptibility to change — we would know more about brain dysfunction in aging, mental health disorders, addiction and neurological disease," says Story Landis, Ph.D., director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), also part of the NIH Blueprint. For example, there is evidence that the growth of abnormal brain connections during early life contributes to autism and schizophrenia. Changes in connectivity also appear to occur when neurons degenerate, either as a consequence of normal aging or of diseases such as Alzheimer�s. In addition to brain imaging, the HCP will involve collection of DNA samples, demographic information and behavioral data from the subjects. Together, these data could hint at how brain connectivity is influenced by genetics and the environment, and in turn, how individual differences in brain connectivity relate to individual differences in behavior. Primarily, however, the data will serve as a baseline for future studies. These data will be freely available to the research community. The complexity of the brain and a lack of adequate imaging technology have hampered past research on human brain connectivity. The brain is estimated to contain more than 100 billion neurons that form trillions of connections with each other. Neurons can connect across distant regions of the brain by extending long, slender projections called axons — but the trajectories that axons take within the human brain are almost entirely uncharted. In the HCP, researchers will optimize and combine state-of-the-art brain imaging technologies to probe axonal pathways and other brain connections. In recent years, sophisticated versions of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have emerged that are capable of looking beyond the brain�s gross anatomy to find functional connections. Functional MRI (fMRI), for example, uses changes in blood flow and oxygen consumption within the brain as markers for neuronal activity, and can highlight the brain circuits that become active during different behaviors. Three imaging techniques are suggested, but are not required, for carrying out the HCP: High angular resolution diffusion imaging with magnetic resonance (HARDI), which detects the diffusion of water along fibrous tissue, and can be used to visualize axon bundles. Resting state fMRI (R-fMRI), which detects fluctuations in brain activity while a person is at rest, and can be used to look for coordinated networks within the brain. Electrophysiology and magnetoencephalography (MEG) combined with fMRI (E/M fMRI), which adds information about the brain�s electrical activity to the fMRI signal. In this procedure, the person performs a task so that the brain regions associated with that task become active. Since this is the first time that researchers will combine these brain imaging technologies to systematically map the brain�s connections, the HCP will support development of new data models, informatics and analytic tools to help researchers make the most of the data. Funds will be provided for building an on-line platform to disseminate HCP data and tools, and for engaging and educating the research community about how to use these data and tools. "Human connectomics has been gaining momentum in the research community for a few years," says Michael Huerta, Ph.D., associate director of NIMH and the lead NIH contact for the HCP. "The data, the imaging tools and the analytical tools produced through the HCP will play a major role in launching connectomics as a field." The field of neuroscience emerged in the late 19th century, when scientists observed individual brain cells for the first time. Since then, researchers have made breathtaking progress in understanding the anatomy, cell biology, physiology and chemistry of the brain in both health and disease. Yet many fundamental questions remain unanswered, including how brain function translates into mental function and why brain function declines with age. Advances in neuroimaging, genomics, computational neuroscience and engineering have put us on the brink of another great era in neuroscience, when we can expect to make unprecedented discoveries regarding normal brain activity, disorders of the brain and our very sense of self. The NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (www.neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov) is a cooperative effort among the NIH Office of the Director and the 15 NIH Institutes and Centers that support research on the nervous system. By pooling resources and expertise, the Blueprint supports transformative neuroscience research, and the development of new tools, training opportunities, and other resources to assist neuroscientists. The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure. For more information, visit the www.nimh.nih.gov. NINDS (www.ninds.nih.gov) is the nation�s primary supporter of biomedical research on the brain and nervous system. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov. Home > News & Events E-mail this page Subscribe to receive future NIH news releases. Image via Wikipedia