Breakthroughs in Bioscience

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Breakthroughs in Bioscience

• From NIH-Funded Basic Research to Improved Health

Minnesota

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National Institutes of Health (NIH)

• Nations medical research agency
• Funds the science that leads to medical
  advancement
• Campus in Bethesda, MD but most funding is
  distributed to university researchers throughout
  the United States
• U-Minnesota ranks 16th overall for NIH-funded
  institution awards the state was awareded more
  than 438 million awarded in 2008.

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Research Enterprise Is Critical to Minnesotas
Economy

• University of Minnesota received more than 245
  million in NIH awards in FY08. Mayo Clinic
  College of Medicine topped 168 million.
• The university returns 5 for every state dollar
  invested
• U-Minnesota receives 98 of all research dollars
  going to public higher education in the state

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Leveraging the States Investment in
Biotechnology

• Minnesota leads the world medical device industry
• The states biomedical industries employ 250,000
  Minnesotans
• University of Minnesota, the state, and Mayo
  Clinic formed an alliance to create a
  biotechnology and genomics research center
  (Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and
  Medical Genomics)

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The NIH Top 20 Universities An Elite Group

1. Johns Hopkins
2. UC San Francisco
3. Pennsylvania
4. Michigan Ann Arbor
5. Washington
6. Washington U
7. Pitt
8. Yale
9. Duke
10. UCLA

• UNC Chapel Hill
• UC San Diego
• Stanford
• Vanderbilt
• Columbia
• Minnesota
• Wisconsin
• Emory
• Baylor
• MIT

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NIH Saving Lives Through Science

• Current annual budget of around 29.3 billion
• Greater than 80 distributed throughout the
  country
• More than 50,000 grants
• 212,000 scientists
• 2,800 universities
• Portfolio of basic, translational, and clinical
  research

NIH has been involved in nearly all the medical
health related discoveries of the past century
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How NIH Makes Science Happen

• Researchers working at local universities,
  hospitals and research institutions are dependent
  on federal support to fund their research, hire
  lab personnel and train young scientists
• They write research grant proposals to compete
  for funding
• Must explain why they think its a good idea, how
  theyre going to do the experiments, and what
  impact it will have on science medicine
• Proposals are reviewed in a two-tiered system
• Peer-reviewed by scientists to ensure highest
  quality science
• Reviewed again for applicability to scientific or
  health priorities by NIH officials and other
  stakeholders, including public members
• NIH review system is the envy of the world!
• Very competitive!!!
• Before - 1 in 3 proposals funded now closer to 1
  in 6
• High quality research is not being done for lack
  of funding

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Basic Research From Bench to Bedside

• Much 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 and
  understanding, not to create or invent something
• However, the insight into how the human body
  works and understanding of how diseases and
  disorders operate provides the foundation for
  medical progress

"People cannot foresee the future well enough to
predict what's going to develop from basic
research. If we only did applied research, we
would still be making better spears." Dr.
George Smoot, Berkeley National Lab
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What about medical breakthroughs?

• Medical breakthroughs often come from unrelated
  areas of science or medicine
• Research on cancer biology has led to drugs for
  heart disease viral diseases like influenza,
  Herpes AIDS and osteoporosis
• Physicists studying the effects of magnets on
  atomic particles made the discovery that gave us
  MRI
• Usually based on years or decades of fundamental
  knowledge
• Over time, scientists solve or find different
  pieces of the puzzle
• This makes it difficult to predict where the next
  breakthrough will come from
• Makes it imperative to support a broad range of
  scientific research
• Much of this research is too basic for the
  private sector
• The federal investment often lays the foundation
  for advances in healthcare

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Evolution of Research to Healthcare
Selected modern examples
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Cardiovascular disease

• Information on the biochemical structure
  synthesis of cholesterol led to the development
  of statins
• Discoveries in basic kidney biology and blood
  pressure regulation converged with an unexpected
  finding involving snake venom to yield ACE
  inhibitors, one of our most effective
  hypertension medications
• Understanding how the blood clots, together with
  a new cancer treatment and the first commercial
  use of recombinant technologies, resulted in
  rtPA, a clot-busting drug that can prevent death
  from heart attack or stroke

RESULTS?? 63 REDUCTION IN DEATHS FROM HEART
DISEASE AND A 70 REDUCTION IN DEATHS DUE TO
STROKE MORE THAN 1 MILLION LIVES SAVED IN 2006
ALONE
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Cardiovascular disease
60
70
Economic return of improved treatment
prevention 2.6 TRILLION
30-year Investment per American 110.00 Total
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HIV / AIDS

• Fundamental knowledge of how viruses replicate
  gave scientists targets for therapy. Researchers
  looking for a new cancer drug hit one of those
  targets when they discovered a way to block
  replication, resulting in the development of AZT.
  
• Increased understanding of how HIV operates at
  the cellular and molecular level identified more
  targets, and eventually led to the combination of
  drugs knows as the triple cocktail.

RESULTS?? AIDS HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED FROM AN ACUTE
FATAL ILLNESS TO A CHRONIC CONDITION THE
PROPHYLACTIC USE OF ANTI-VIRALS PREVENTED ALMOST
350,000 DEATHS WORLDWIDE IN 2005
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HIV / AIDS
Survival rates for those infected with HIV has
increased by 10 years
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Cancer

• Basic research into the shape and characteristics
  of the estrogen receptor gave us tamoxifen, which
  can reduce breast cancer incidence among women at
  risk by over 45.
• The breakthrough finding that human
  papillomavirus (HPV) could cause cervical cancer
  has led to a new vaccine that NIH estimated could
  reduce cervical cancer incidence by as much as
  90.
• While investigating the cellular machinery
  controlling cell growth, scientists developed
  bortezomib - now used to treat patients with
  multiple myeloma.

RESULTS?? FROM 1993-2002, CANCER DEATH RATES
DROPPED 1.1 PER YEAR MORE THAN 2/3 OF PEOPLE
DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER CAN EXPECT TO LIVE 5 YEARS
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Cancer
30-year Investment per American 260.00 Total
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Infant mortality

• Studies on lung function led to the discovery of
  surfactant. This protein-lipid mixture is crucial
  for the survival of premature infants, decreasing
  the number of infant deaths from respiratory
  distress from 15,000 per year to less than 1,000.
• The use of anti-virals to prevent mother to child
  HIV transmission has reduced the rate from 25 to
  about 1 in the U.S.
• Studies on a metabolite of progesterone, known as
  progesterone 17P, have led to the finding that
  injections of this compound can reduce pre-term
  deliveries by as much as 30, a particularly
  important result for African American women.

RESULTS?? IN LESS THAN A CENTURY, INFANT
MORTALITY IN THE U.S. HAS BEEN REDUCED BY 90,
TRANSLATING TO ALMOST 500,000 BABIES SAVED PER
YEAR
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NIH-Funded Discoveries in Minnesota

• Discovered the organism that causes HGE, a rare
  infectious disease transmitted by deer ticks
• Reversed memory loss in mice with brain
  degeneration, which has implications for treating
  Alzheimers disease
• Reduced the donor-recipient ratio in pancreatic
  islet transplants, helping these Type 1 diabetes
  patients remain insulin-free
• Researchers discovered the genetic cause of most
  common form of muscular dystrophy in adults
• Discovered that insulin resistance is a predictor
  of cardiovascular disease from childhood

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The Bottom Line

• People are living longer, healthier lives because
  of NIH funded medical research
• What were once swiftly fatal illnesses have
  become treatable or manageable conditions
• For those suffering from diseases that have no
  current treatment or cure, medical research
  provides hope which has a major impact on
  quality of life

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The Challenge

• NIH funding is entirely dependent on
  Congressional support
• In recent years, Congressional support has
  diminished, and the NIH budget is slowly eroding
  from lack of funding and inflation
• Lack of understanding in Congress about the
  importance of medical research and the treatments
  and hope it provides
• As the NIH budget falls, success rate also falls

• Diminished investment in NIH loss of talented
  researchers missed opportunities delays in
  medical progress

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Minnesotas Congressmen Need to Advocate for NIH
Funding

• Nothing should surpass improving our health as a
  national priority
• Opportunities for discoveries that translate to
  improved health for our citizens have never been
  greater
• Every increase in the NIH budget means additional
  funding for research in the state and new jobs

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We Need your HelpWorking Together for NIH

• Contact Senator Klobuchar and your Congressional
  Representative
• Let them know that medical research is important
  to you and what a bargain it is
• Write a letter to the newspaper and talk to your
  friends
• Help educate policymakers and neighbors about the
  important work NIH is doing
• Nothing is more important than our health
• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) should be
  an American priority

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Want to know more??
Please visit http//opa.faseb.org
Federation of American Societies for Experimental
Biology (FASEB)