Breakthroughs in Bioscience

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Breakthroughs in Bioscience

• From NIH-Funded Basic Research to Improved Health

Ohio
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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
• Ohio ranks 10th overall in NIH funding (630 M)

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Research Is Critical to Ohios Economy

• Case Western Research University received the
  most NIH funding in the state of Ohio in FY2008
  (165M).
• The University of Cincinnati Medical Center
  creates a total economic impact of 3.05 billion
  on the Ohio Tri-state area.
• The potential economic impact of new biotech
  activities on the Tri-state could be in excess of
  100 million over the next 10 years.
• The Ohio State University Biomedical Research
  Tower is expected to generate an estimated 3.7
  billion in economic impact and 17,000 jobs during
  its first 10 years in operation.
• Ohio's academic health-care industry generated an
  economic return of 37.2 billion in 2007.

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Leverages the States Investment with Extramural
Research Dollars

• Since 1993, research and development expenditures
  at Ohio universities and colleges have increased
  70 - nearly 1B combined in FY2001
• Ohio is home to 2 of the countrys top 10
  pediatric hospitals and 4 of the top 50 cancer
  facilities
• Ohio ranks among the top 8 states in the total
  number of clinical trials hosted
• The Third Frontier Project commits 500M over the
  next 10 years to fund new technology and research
  and more than 500M to enhance research
  facilities
• Ohio is ranked 6th in the nation for total
  employment in high-tech industries with 484,245
  workers

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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
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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 Ohio

• Early use of gene therapy to treat recurring
  brain tumors (University of Cincinnati College of
  Medicine)
• Developed deoxycoformycin to cure hairy cell
  leukemia (Ohio State University College of
  Medicine and Public Health)
• The University of Cincinnati Childrens Hospital
  Medical Center is one of the seven institutions
  leading the NIHs effort to evaluate new vaccines
  for avian flu
• Discovered the role of T-helper cells in
  controlling infection by a tumor virus (Ohio
  State University College of Medicine and Public
  Health)
• Determined that calcium and vitamin D supplements
  in postmenopausal women have a modest benefit to
  bone mineral density and prevent hip fractures in
  certain groups, but do not prevent colorectal
  cancer and other bone fractures (Ohio State
  University Medical Center)

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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, the success rate in Ohio
  also falls

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

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Ohios Members of Congress 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
• The Cincinnati region has high incidence rates of
  cancer, heart disease, and diabetes research
  can touch the lives of each Ohio resident

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We Need your HelpWorking Together for NIH

• Contact Senators Brown and Voinovich, or the
  Congressional Representative for your district
• 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)