Science Fair Project

Breakthroughs in Bioscience

From NIH-Funded Basic Researchto Improved Health

IllinoisIllinois

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Nation’s medical researchagency

Funds the science that leadsto medical advancement

Campus in Bethesda, MD –but most funding isdistributed to universityresearchers throughout theUnited States

Illinois received over $772M inNIH funding in FY2011

Research Is Critical to Illinois’ Economy

University of Illinois (UI) spends over $560M onscience and engineering research annually

In 2007, UI established the $75M Institute forGenomic Biology

Research parks associated with UI-Urbana andUI-Chicago together host more than 100 companies

UI has an annual economic impact of about $13B and supports154,000 in-state jobs

For every $1 of state investment, UI produces $17 of return

Chicago is the largest employer of high-tech workers in the US

about 29,000 life, social science and physical scientists

28,000+ engineers and 13,500+ engineering and sciencetechnicians

100,300+ computer and mathematical occupations

NIH funding to Northwestern increased 64.8% from 2001 to 2008

NIH Grants SupportMany Programs in Illinois

UI Chicago received $20M and Northwestern received $30M toestablish two Clinical & Translational Science Award (CTSA)institutions, which form a national consortium to improve the waybiomedical research is conducted across the country

NIGMS awarded more than $15M to support the new ChicagoCenter for Systems Biology – one of only 10 such centers in the US

Scientists from the University of Chicago, Northwestern,and UI joined forces to establish the Chicago Tri-Institutional Center for Chemical Methods, with thesupport of a $9.2M grant from NIH

$4.7M in federal stimulus (ARRA) funds was used foran important Alzheimer’s study, examining cognitivedecline in older African-Americans at Rush UniversityMedical Center

NIH: Saving Lives Through Science

Current annual budget (FY2012) of around $30.6B

Greater than 80% distributed throughout the country

oAlmost 50,000 grants

oMore than 325,000 scientists at over 3,000 research sites

oHow much money is being spent in your local area?

•http://report.nih.gov/award/organizations.cfm

Portfolio of basic, translational, and clinical research

NIH has been involved in nearly all the major medical &health related discoveries of the past fifty years

How NIH Makes Science Happen…

Most researchers working at local universities, hospitals, and researchinstitutions are dependent on federal support to fund their research, hirelab personnel, and train young scientists

Researchers write grant proposals to compete for funding

oMust explain why they think it’s a good idea, how they’re going to do theexperiments, and what impact it will have on science and medicine

Proposals are reviewed in a two-tier system

oPeer-reviewed by scientists to ensure highest quality science

oReviewed again for applicability to scientific or health priorities, by NIHofficials and other stakeholders, including public members

oNIH review system is the envy of the world!

Very competitive!

oOnly 1 in 4 proposals funded in the 2008 fiscal year

oLots of high quality research not being done for lack of funding

Basic Research: From Bench to Bedside

A portion of NIH funding goes to basic or fundamental research

Basic research is driven by interest in a scientific question

The main motivation is to expand knowledge andunderstanding

However, the insight into how the human body works andunderstanding of how diseases and disorders operate providesthe foundation for medical progress

"People cannot foresee the future well enough to predictwhat's going to develop from basic research. If we only didapplied research, we would still be making better spears."

Dr. George Smoot, Berkeley National Lab

What AboutMedical Breakthroughs?

Medical breakthroughs often come from unrelated areas ofscience or medicine

oResearch on cancer biology has led to drugs for heart disease,osteoporosis, and viral diseases like influenza, herpes & AIDS

oPhysicists studying the effects of magnets on atomic particlesmade the discovery that gave us magnetic resonance imagining(MRI)

It often takes years or decades of fundamental knowledge tosolve or find different pieces of the puzzle

This makes it difficult to predict where the nextbreakthrough will come from

oMakes it imperative to support a broad range of scientific research

oToo risky for the private sector, federal funding is critical forresearch

Evolution of Research toHealthcare

Some recent examples…

Cardiovascular Disease

Information on the biochemical structure and synthesisof cholesterol led to the development of statins, a class ofdrug used to lower cholesterol

Discoveries in basic kidney biology and an increasedunderstanding of the molecular regulation of bloodpressure converged with an unexpected finding involvingsnake venom to give us ACE inhibitors, one of our mosteffective hypertension medications

Research into the mechanism of how blood forms clots,together with the search to find a new cancer treatmentand the first commercial use of recombinanttechnologies, resulted in rt-PA, a clot-busting drug thatcan prevent death from heart attack or stroke

Results ofCardiovascular Disease Research

“Americans canexpect to live

an average of

four years longerdue to thereductions indeaths due tocardiovasculardisease, largelyas a result ofNIH research.”

CVD disease death rates(United States: 1900-2006)

Future Directions…

Genome-wide associations studies (GWAS) areproviding unprecedented insight into the intricate rolegenetics plays in the development of heart disease andidentifying possible targets for novel drug therapies

Research on the effect of air pollution on blood vesselconstriction is helping scientists understand howenvironmental factors effect cardiovascular health

Innovative imaging systems are being developed toallow for simultaneous evaluation of electrical activityand metabolic properties in the heart, allowing for thestudy of the complex mechanisms which lead to suddencardiac arrest

HIV / AIDS

Fundamental knowledge of how viruses replicate gavescientists targets for therapy that led to the discovery of away to block replication, resulting in the development ofazidothymidine (AZT)

Increased understanding of how HIV operates at thecellular and molecular level identified more targets, andeventually led to the combination of drugs knows as the‘triple cocktail’

Results of HIV / AIDS Research

The number of cases has remained relatively stablewhile the number of deaths has decreased

AIDS has been transformed from an acute, fatalillness to a chronic, manageable condition

Future Directions…

Topical antimicrobial products, or microbicides, offer oneof the most promising avenues to primary prevention ofHIV transmission

A number of HIV vaccine clinical trials have begun, whichdepend on fundamental research of the human immuneresponse and on understanding of the way in which HIVinfects cells

Investigators have identified the existence of HIVreservoirs that persist despite antiretroviral therapy, andefforts are now being focused on understanding andeliminating these reservoirs

Cancer

The discovery that estrogen’s role in breast cancer, togetherwith basic research into the shape and characteristics of theestrogen receptor, gave us tamoxifen, which can reducebreast cancer incidence among women at risk by over 45%

The breakthrough finding that human papillomavirus(HPV) could cause cervical cancer led to a new vaccine thatNIH estimated could reduce cervical cancer incidence by asmuch as 90%

 While investigating the cellular machinery controlling cellgrowth, scientists found the 26S proteasome, the inhibitionof which is the power behind bortezomib – now used totreat patients with multiple myeloma

Results of Cancer Research

“Overall cancersurvival rates haveimprovedsignificantly, fromabout 50% in the1970’s to 66% inrecent years. This isdue, in part, to bothearlier detection andadvances intreatment.”

Future Directions…

Medical researchers have found certain antibodies that arepresent only in tumors and may enable early detection anddiagnosis of certain cancers

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), a project dedicated toaccelerating our understanding of cancer genetics, hasenabled deeper understanding of the most common form ofadult brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme

By suppressing the action of a certain cellular receptor,CD47, researchers have developed a method to protecthealthy tissue from radiation therapy while makingcancerous cells more vulnerable

Infant Mortality

Research on the fundamental biology of lung functionenabled the discovery of surfactant, a protein crucial forsurvival of premature infants, and enabled a decrease in thenumber of infant deaths from respiratory distress from15,000 per year to less than 1,000 by 2002

The use of anti-virals to prevent mother-to-child HIVtransmission reduced the rate from 25% to nearly 1%

Studies on a metabolite of progesterone led to the findingthat injections of this compound, progesterone 17P, couldprevent pre-term delivery by as much as 30%, which isparticularly significant in African American women

Results of Researchon Infant Mortality

In less than acentury, infantmortality in theUnited Stateshas beenreduced by90%

This translatesto almost500,000babies savedper year

Figure 17 is a line graph showing trends in infant, neonatal, and postneonatal mortality rates, for 1950 through 2006.

Future Directions…

In order to better diagnose and treat congenital heartdefects, a leading cause of infant mortality, scientists aredeveloping new non-invasive imaging technologies forprenatal heart studies

Novel diagnostic techniques for amniotic fluid infection,a major risk factor for preterm birth, are beingdeveloped based on a recent finding that bacteria in theamniotic cavity can form biofilms (which makeinfections harder to detect)

Neural Prosthetics

The groundwork for neural prosthetics was laid by morethan a century’s worth of basic research by anatomists,biochemists, and electrophysiologists

The first cochlear implant was introduced in the 1970s;today, more than 23,000 adults and 15,000 children inthe U.S. owe their hearing to this device

The artificial retina is delicate enough not to damage theeye yet complex enough to provide visual input to thehuman brain; by 2011, the research team expects to startclinical testing on a version that enables reading andfacial recognition

Urgent Need for ProstheticsResearch and Development

Body armor saves lives, but provides little to noprotection for a soldier’s limbs

One of the major impairments seen in veteransreturning from Iraq and Afghanistan is amputations

Future Directions…

After amputation, the nervescontrolling the missing limbremain active

Scientists have developedsuperfine electrode arrays toconnect these nerves withprosthetic limbs

This will allow amputees tocontrol and sense theirprosthetics intuitively,making them feel more liketheir original limbs

NIH-FundedDiscoveries in Illinois

First consistent chromosomal abnormalities linked tocancer, demonstrating that cancer is a genetic disease (UCHospitals)

Performed the first bone marrow transplant (UC Hospitals)

First use of hormone therapy to treat prostate cancer (UCHospitals)

First to demonstrate that women with polycystic ovarysyndrome (PCOS) are at markedly increased risk for type 2diabetes (Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine)

Discovered for the first time in humans the presence of atoxic protein that is responsible for the devastating memoryloss found in individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.(Northwestern)

The Bottom Line…

People are living longer, healthier livesbecause of NIH funded medical research

What were once swiftly fatal illnesses havebecome treatable or manageable conditions

For those suffering from diseases that haveno current treatment or cure, medicalresearch provides hope

The Challenge…

NIH funding requires congressional support

Sustainable budget growth is needed to achieve thefull promise of medical research

Strong, outspoken champions for NIH in Congressand within the Administration are essential

Diminished investment in NIH = loss oftalented researchers = missed opportunities= delays in medical progress

Illinois’s Members of CongressNeed to Advocate for NIH Funding

Nothing should surpass improving our health as anational priority

Opportunities for discoveries that translate toimproved health for our citizens have never beengreater

Every increase in the NIH budget means additionalfunding for research in the state and new jobs

We Need your Help:Working Together for NIH

Contact Senators Durbin and Burris, or theCongressional Representative for yourdistrict

Let them know that medical research isimportant to you and what a bargain it is

Write a letter to the newspaper and talk toyour friends

Help educate policymakers and neighborsabout the important work NIH is doing

Nothing is more important than our health

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)should be an American priority

Want to Know More?

Please visit opa.faseb.org