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John La Montagne, Ph.D.,
Director, DMID
Dr. John La Montagne, Director of NIAID's Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, welcomed the Subcommittee members, ad hoc members: Drs. Carole Long and Dyann Wirth, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention representative Dr. Daniel Colley. Dr. La Montagne reviewed recent DMID personnel changes, which include: the appointment of Dr. Dennis Dixon as Chief of the Bacteriology and Mycology Branch (BMB); the addition of Dr. Steve Heyse and Ms. Marilyn Tuttelman, who come to the BMB from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases; the addition of Dr. Leigh Sawyer to the STD Branch; the addition of Dr. Bruce Gellin to the Clinical and Regulatory Affairs Branch; the assignment of Dr. Edward McSweegan to the Parasitology and International Programs Branch; the addition of Dr. Ann Ginsberg to the Respiratory Diseases Branch; and the departure of Dr. Carole Heilman, Chief of the Respiratory Diseases Branch. Dr. Pamela McInnes has assumed the role of Acting Chief of the Respiratory Diseases Branch.
Dr. La Montagne also noted that the two initiatives that were discussed at the last Council meeting, the STD Clinical Studies Group initiative and the streptococcal initiative, will proceed with minor modifications based on the Subcommittee's comments. Dr. La Montagne also raised for the Subcommittee's consideration the newly revised definition of tropical diseases research, which will be used as a more precise method of tracking tropical diseases research information. The Subcommittee agreed that the revised definition was reasonable.
Following his opening remarks, Dr. La Montagne introduced two concepts that were presented to the Subcommittee for their approval: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Pathophysiology (program announcement) and Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Middle East (interagency agreement with USAID). Both concepts were approved. The Subcommittee acknowledged that the CFS initiative was responsive to their recommendations of last September, at which time they reviewed the NIAID CFS Program, to explore new hypotheses of pathogenesis and to involve other NIH entities in the CFS research effort. The Subcommittee also acknowledged that the Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Middle East initiative addressed goals outlined in the Report of the Committee on International Science, Engineering and Technology (CISET) on Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases and is consistent with USAID efforts to address emerging infectious diseases.
Program staff then provided brief reports on recent meetings and workshops, which DMID either sponsored or co-sponsored: Dr. Regina Rabinovich summarized the February 1996 "International Meeting of Nucleic Acid Vaccines for the Prevention of Infectious Diseases;" Dr. Catherine Laughlin summarized the March 1996 meeting of the Collaborative Antiviral Study Group; Dr. Dennis Dixon summarized the April 1996 meeting of the Mycoses Study Group; and Dr. Ann Ginsberg summarized the July 1995 Tuberculosis Vaccine Development Workshop.
Dr. La Montagne then provided an overview of program and training issues. He presented a model format for portraying Division activities, which identified research goals, major initiatives and current emphasis, program strategies and gap areas. It is planned that such a breakdown will be developed for each program area. The Subcommittee concurred that this type of format would be useful for their purposes concerning Division activities. In addition, Dr. La Montagne noted that Dr. Robert Quackenbush will serve as the Assistant Director for Training, Referral and Minority Affairs in the DMID Office of the Director. In particular, Dr. Quackenbush will work to develop a tracking mechanism to monitor the impact of our training efforts.
Dr. Stephanie James, Parasitology and International Programs Branch (PIPB), DMID, reviewed the status of funding of malaria research within the NIAID extramural programs, and related this to global support of malaria research as reported in a recent study conducted by the Wellcome Trust. Dr. Michael Gottlieb (PIPB) reviewed the Institute's international activities, and specifically projects dealing with field and clinical research on malaria. The support of research in endemic areas enables definition of the biological factors affecting transmission and clinical disease expression, and supports the research infrastructure necessary to evaluate the efficacy of intervention strategies and to assess re-emergence of malaria due to the spread of drug-resistant parasites. Drs. Gottlieb and Dyann Wirth (Harvard School of Public Health) also described the need for development of new antimalarial drugs due to emergence of resistance to cholorquine and other antimalarials, the current lack of vaccines, and the decreasing effectiveness of vector control methods due to ecological concerns and evolution of insecticide-resistant mosquitoes. Dr. Gottlieb reviewed NIAID mechanisms, including unsolicited investigator-initiated grants, international programs, drug development contracts and interagency collaborations, available for support of discovery of new malaria drug targets and development of antimalarials. Dr. Wirth also provided an overview of current research in this area.
The objectives of malaria vaccine research and development in DMID were reviewed by Dr. Lee Hall (PIPB). Investigator-initiated research support has been the mainstay of the program, but special initiatives (such as the USAID-NIAID Joint Program on Malaria Vaccine Development) and contract support for certain aspects (vaccine production, formulation, evaluation, regulatory affairs support) have substantially contributed to accelerated development. Resources for vaccine identification and validation, preclinical development, production and clinical evaluation were reviewed. Following this Dr. Carole Long (Hahnemann Medical College) described the current status and scientific opportunities that exist in malaria vaccine research and development.
Coordination of malaria research through a variety of formal and informal mechanisms was emphasized by program staff. Within the NIH, such collaborations have resulted in support for establishment of a recombinant protein expression unit, IND filings and other clinical and regulatory issues, and HLA typing in clinical trials. At the national agency level, DMID Staff participate in the Federal Malaria Vaccine Coordinating Committee, which promotes malaria vaccine development efforts in the public sector through exchange of information, joint identification and development of priorities, and improved coordination of efforts. DMID staff also work collaboratively to enhance malaria research activities with their counterparts at the WHO/TDR program, the Commission of the European Communities, and the Government of India, Department of Biotechnology (through the US-Indo Vaccine Action Program). Two recent multinational initiatives, the international malaria genome sequencing effort, and the "Malaria in Africa" initiative, were also discussed. back to top |