March 2009

A total of $8.2 billion will go to the NIH Office of the Director. From that, $7.4 billion will be transferred to the Institutes and Centers (I/Cs) within the NIH. The remaining $800 million is for trans-NIH initiatives. A total of $1.3 billion will go to NCRR, of which $300 million will be available for shared equipment grants. And, $1 billion will be for construction, renovation and repair of non-federal research facilities. The remaining $900 million will go to NIH intramural facilities.

There will be three major mechanisms for spending the $8.2 billion designated for research. Unlike traditional NIH grants, there will be a requirement to provide justification that people are staying in jobs or that new ones are created as a result of the funding.

1. For R01 applications in the funding queue that have already been found to be highly meritorious, two years of funding will be provided for those that can benefit from two years of funding and align with I/C priorities. A few applications may get four years of funding.

2. Existing grants with at least one year to run may be given the opportunity or asked to submit supplements that further the goals of the I/Cs. These will be handled at least in part by requests from the I/Cs.

3. A new RFA will be released for a new two-year program of cross-cutting, highly innovative projects, with a total of $1 M per project.

NSF is slated to receive $3 billion through the legislation. NSF's regular peer reviewed grant process will receive $2 billion. The Major Research Instrumentation program will receive $300 million. The Academic Research Infrastructure program for competitively awarded laboratory construction grants will be restarted. (The program has been inactive since FY 1996.)

Education and human resources will receive $100 million. A total of $60 million will go to the Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program and $25 million to the Math and Science Partnerships program. A new Professional Masters Science Program will receive $15 million.

The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) program will receive $400 million to accelerate the construction of major research facilities with unique capabilities at the cutting edge of science.

The Duke Office of Research Support is providing current information on the implications and discussion regarding the government's stimulus package (under What's New) and its effects on research.

Imaging Gene Regulation
Uwe Ohler was chosen as Young Investigator of the week in Genome Technology.

Schizophrenia Genetics
In an ABC News article, Anna Need, a postdoc in the Goldstein lab, discusses a study in which she was lead author, that show results that schizophrenia is caused, at least in part, by large, rare structural changes in DNA.

Genetic Pasts and Futures
In a Q&A with Duke Magazine, David Goldstein discusses his studies on how genetic variations influence individuals' response to specific treatments and his work on Jewish history.

Your DNA is a Snitch
Misha Angrist is asked in this salon.com article "Wasn't it difficult to do that?" with regard to having his medical history posted online this fall as part of his participation in the Personal Genome Project.

Patterns of MicroRNA Expression Characterize Stages of Human B Cell Differentiation
In a report published in Blood, Sandeep Dave and his team found that common B-cell malignancies do not down-regulate microRNA expression like other tumor malignancies. Expression of these lineage-specific microRNAs could correctly predict the lineage of B-cell malignancies in over 95% of the cases. Thus, they conclude that microRNAs may be important in maintaining the mature B-cell phenotype in normal and malignant B-cells.

Inactivation of the MAL Gene in Breast Cancer Is a Common Event That Predicts Benefit from Adjuvant Chemotherapy
A team of scientists, including John Olson, Jeffrey Marks and Susan Murphy, report in Molecular Cancer Research that, in patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy, reduced MAL expression was a significant predictive factor for disease-free survival.

Human Nature and Enhancement
Allen Buchanan argues in Bioethics that appeals to human nature tend to obscure rather than illuminate the debate over the ethics of enhancement and can be eliminated in favor of more cogent considerations.

A Bayesian Analysis Strategy for Cross-Study Translation of Gene Expression Biomarkers
In a study published in Statistical Application in Genetics and Molecular Biology, lead author Joe Lucas illustrates a strategy for analysis of experimentally derived gene expression signatures in a detailed study from an oncogene intervention experiment.

Proprietary Science, Open Science and The Role of Patent Disclosure: The Case of Zinc-finger Proteins
In Nature Biotechnology, Shubha Chandrasekharan, a fellow in the IGSP Center for Genome, Ethics, Law & Policy, and her colleagues analyze a large patent estate covering both the engineering and use of zinc-finger proteins.

The Potential of a Placebo/Nocebo Effect in Pharmacogenetics
A team led by Susanne Haga reports in Public Health Genomics that studies are needed to investigate the impact of pharmacogenetic information of therapeutic outcome due to a patient's perceived value of testing, their understanding of the test results, and the manner in which they are communicated.

Cross-Study Projections of Genomic Biomarkers: An Evaluation in Cancer Genomics
In PLoS ONE, a research team led by Joe Lucas, Ashley Chi and Mike West show that factors can reflect fundamentally different biological processes linked to molecular and clinical features of human cancers and that in combination they can improve prediction of clinical outcomes.

Human Gamma-Satellite DNA Maintains Open Chromatin Structure and Protects a Transgene from Epigenetic Silencing
A research team including Beth Sullivan reported in Genome Research studies addressing the dynamic chromatin state of gamma-satellite arrays in their natural location. They suggest that gamma-satellite DNA represents a unique region of the centromere region of human chromosomes.

Ashley Chi has been awarded a Susan G. Komen for the Cure three-year grant for a project entitled "Mammary epithelial cell types as determinant of hypoxia responses in breast cancers".

Sandeep Dave was awarded an R01 from the NIH entitled "Molecular targets in diffuse large B cell lymphoma".

For full details and the latest updates on IGSP seminars and events, see the Events Calendar

A selection of upcoming events:

Monday, March 2nd
Special Seminar
Luis Carvalho from Brown University will present "Bayesian Centroid Estimation"

Monday, March 2nd
Cancer Genomics Meeting
Robert Wechsler-Reya will present "Roots and Shoots: Tracking the Origin and Fate of Brain Tumors in Mice"

Tuesday, March 3rd
Tuesday Seminar Series
Nick Rhind from U Mass, Worcester will present "Regulation of DNA Replication Origin Timing and Efficiency"

Wednesday, March 4th
Systems Biology Seminar
Mihai V. Podgoreanu will present "Systems modeling of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury"

Wednesday, March 4th
Computational Biology Seminar
Ian Holmes from the Dept. of Bioengineering, UC Berkeley will present "Bayesian reconstruction of insertion-deletion histories in genes and genomes"

Thursday, March 5th
Genomic Medicine Forum
Alex Cho, will present "Pushing Clinical Genomics at Duke"

Tuesday, March 10th
Genome Biology Meeting
Erin Strome from the Willard Lab presents.

Wednesday, March 18th
Race, Genetics and Health Seminar
Dr. Fatimah Jackson from the University of Maryland presents.
RSVP by January 14th

Wednesday, March 18th
Genome Academy
Greg Wray, PhD, Director, IGSP Center for Evolutionary Genomics and Lisa Bukovnik, Manager, IGSP DNA Sequencing Facility will present "Next-Generation Sequencing Technologies and Applications". Registration required.

Pharmacogenomics Research Network (U01/U19)
Application Receipt Date(s): June 02, 2009