2. Remarks of the Director, NIAID

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

Dr. Fauci opened the Monday afternoon, May 24th, session of Council by welcoming visitors to the 132nd meeting.

He welcomed the ad hoc Council members: Dr. Mary Foulkes, Senior Statistician, Statistics Collaborative, Inc., Washington, D.C.; Dr. Tomas Ganz, Professor of Medicine and Pathology, University of California, Los Angeles; Dr. Ronald Mitsuyasu, Director, CARE Center, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles; and Dr. Gary Schoolnik, Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University.

The minutes of the January 25-26, 1999 meeting were considered and approved as written.

Within the Office of the Director, NIAID, Leslie Fink has been appointed Director, Office of Communications and Public Liaison. Dr. Fauci announced Dr. Carole Heilman's appointment as Director, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. He also announced the appointment of Dr. Gary Nabel as Director of NIH's Vaccine Research Center.

Dr. Fauci showcased the FY 2000 president's budget, which increases NIH funding by 2.1 percent; all institutes and centers gain 2.4 percent. However, Congress has yet to put forward its budget, so these figures could change dramatically. The president's budget puts the NIH budget back on pace to expand 50 percent by FY 2003, in contrast to a congressional plan to double NIH's budget by then. In FY 1999, NIAID received a 16.4 percent budget boost.

On May 12 to 13, a panel of experts reviewed Institute-supported microbial genomics activities and supported a new policy, which will appear soon in the NIH Guide. Council endorsed these guidelines as presented by the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID). The key points are:

• Use cooperative agreements rather than R01s.
• Cap support at $1.5 million a year for up to two years.
• Fund only approved organisms for sequencing applications (this does not apply to hypothesis-based pathogen research, which may be funded for all organisms through R01s.)
• Require applicants to gain approval from the DMID director before submitting an application.

A strategy for sequencing applications was needed because NIAID already funds large-scale genome sequencing projects for more than twenty human pathogens, and high-quality applications continue to come in for these high-cost projects. Another problem was the quality of peer reviews of sequencing projects, which led to the move to fund them as cooperative agreements.

In May, the panel approved 21 organisms for eventual sequencing, selecting six as immediate priorities: Anopheles gambiae, Aspergillus fumigatus, Cryptococcus neoformans, Cryptosporidium parvum, Schistosoma mansoni, and Staphylococcus epidermis. The list of targeted organisms will be reviewed periodically in consultation with experts, updated, and published on the Web.

Another goal of the panel was to make sure the research community receives timely and cost effective genomic sequence data and access to whole genome expression technologies, including access to reagents, e.g., clones and PCR primers. NIAID will continue to ensure rapid access to these data. The new policy will also promote cost-efficient, rapid release of sequence information while providing for consistency in peer review and better coordination among funding organizations.

IOM Reports

The IOM will soon publish two reports relevant to NIAID research. "Vaccines for the 21st Century: A Tool for Decisionmaking" helps the research community set domestic vaccine priorities for the future. Copies can be requested from the IOM, and more information is available in the NIAID press release on the Internet.

The second report, "International Benchmarking of US Immunology Research," assesses U.S. leadership in four subfields of immunology. The IOM study found that the U.S. leads the rest of the world in immunology research but warned that sufficient funding of research, research talent, and investment by industry is essential to maintain it.

Committee Report — NAAIDC Liaison to OAR Advisory Committee — Jerrold Ellner, M.D.

Dr. Ellner reported that the Committee discussed preventions, particularly nonvaccine preventive measures. Although measures such as needle exchange can curb transmission rates, the U.S. does not have a national effort to implement these approaches due to a lack of policy consensus. The committee also compiled a list of priorities and related activities.

Council Materials:

Copies of the Legislative Update, which describes hearings and bills of interest to the Institute, were distributed. In addition, the NIAID Office of Communications provided Council members with several publications and press releases.