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George Curlin, M.D., Acting Director, DMID
Dr. George Curlin provided a brief report on DMID activities. Referring to the upcoming morning session on the Blue Ribbon Panel on Microbial Genome Sequencing, Dr. Curlin extended thanks to Drs. Gary Schoolnik and David Relman, both from the School of Medicine at Stanford University, for their participation in the Subcommmittee Council session; he also welcomed the other participants who were invited to discuss other items on the agenda. Dr. Curlin announced the appointment of Dr. Carole Heilman as the new Director of DMID, and the addition of Dr. Marissa Miller as the new antimicrobial resistance program officer for the Bacteriology and Mycology Branch.
Dr. Curlin gave an update on the hepatitis C RFA, which NIAID cosponsored with five other Institutes, including NIDDK. He shared that 87 applications were received in toto, out of which NIAID chose 21 of particular interest to the Institute. A discussion ensued regarding who has the lead at NIH for hepatitis research and the overlap that exists across the agency in this area. Dr. Leslye Johnson mentioned the establishment of the NIH inter-institute hepatitis C working group, which meets regularly to address this issue and offer coordination among the relevant Institutes. Dr. Curlin also mentioned other activities in which DMID has participated such as the state-of-the-art conference on hepatitis C and the U.S.-Japan emerging infectious diseases meeting. He also stated that there will be a future collaboration with the NCI and others to explore how research initiatives might address associations of infectious agents with chronic diseases previously classified as noncommunicable. In closing his remarks, Dr. Curlin mentioned that NIAID extramural offices, including DMID, would be moving to a new location.
Following Dr. Curlin's opening statement, Dr. Stephanie James made brief remarks regarding the Institute's interest in fostering genomics and post-genomics research in microbial pathogens and on the recently-held Blue Ribbon Genome Sequencing Panel meeting. She thanked DMID program officers Drs. Ann Ginsberg and Michael Gottlieb, and others who participated, for their efforts in this area, and then turned to Dr. Gottlieb to moderate the morning-long discussion.
Dr. Gottlieb began by stating how the revolution in high throughput DNA sequencing, and computer technology and bio-informatics, has greatly impacted research on microorganisms and, as a result, the NIAID views this as an opportunity to accelerate the pace of infectious diseases research. He globally described the activities of the May Blue Ribbon Panel meeting (the major topic of this morning's Subcommittee Council session), and outlined the issues the panel participants were asked to address. He introduced Dr. David Relman, Assistant Professor with the Stanford University School of Medicine, who discussed the areas and ways in which large-scale genome sequencing information will provide a basis for future activities in a variety of directions for the NIAID. He referred to the wave of genome sequencing information now available to the public as an "on-going explosion," mentioning that data gathered only a week earlier was probably already outdated. Dr. Relman mentioned the issue of new drug discovery, alluding to the idea that, while it will be a lengthy process, with full genome sequencing, one has a tool with which to begin the process of finding, detecting, and testing new targets for drug development. He finally mentioned several early recommendations of the colloquium the American Academy of Microbiology held on this topic in March of this year. Dr. Gottlieb next introduced Dr. Gary Schoolnik, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, who provided an update on some of the new tools that will enable researchers to address global expression of large-scale genome sequencing, specifically, how to extract functional information from genome sequences using the micro-array method. After the break, Dr. Gottlieb discussed the rationale for the development of the policy by which the NIAID intends to support pathogen genome sequencing projects and then mentioned the initiative for the support of functional genomics. He then introduced the last presenter, Dr. Jorge Benach, Professor of Pathology at SUNY at Stony Brook, who, as Council liaison to the Blue Ribbon Panel, provided an overview of the recommendations from that meeting. Dr. Benach highlighted what he described as the "major features" of the meeting, which included the agreed-upon recommendation that large-scale genome sequencing projects will be supported by the cooperative agreement mechanism; in addition, the NIAID will provide the scientific community with a priority list of organisms to be sequenced. He emphasized that the new NIAID policy will ensure consistent review of applications, and that the products, or the "deliverables" of these projects, are complete, are of high quality and can be made available to other researchers. At the conclusion of a question and answer period, the Subcommittee voted to endorse the draft policy and the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon panel. The policy will be published in the NIH Guide in Summer 1999 and will be linked to information available on the NIAID web site, including the list of priority organisms.
The final segment of the day included a series of presentations from DMID staff, who provided updates on various programs within the Division. Drs. Dennis Dixon, Stephen Heyse, and Marissa Miller, with the Bacteriology and Mycology Branch, provided an update of activities in the area of antimicrobial resistance. Dr. Penelope Hitchcock, Sexually Transmitted Diseases Branch, discussed the current status of syphilis in the United States and future challenges regarding this disease. Dr. Dennis Lang, Enteric and Hepatic Diseases Branch, gave a brief update on the Crohn's Disease workshop held in December of 1998. Dr. Regina Rabinovich, Clinical and Regulatory Affairs Branch, and Dr. Kathleen Stratton from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), discussed the recent IOM study, "Vaccines for the 21st Century-A Tool for Decision-Making;" Dr. Stratton described the methodology used by the IOM Committee on this study. Dr. Robert Quackenbush, Assistant Director for Training, Referral and Minority Affairs, concluded the Subcommittee session by providing an update on DMID research training issues for FY 98 and 99.
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