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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – STANFORD, Calif. – Are science funders giving basic medical researchers-for decades medicine’s elite-the cold shoulder?
The summer issue of Stanford Medicine magazine answers with a qualified yes. Although millions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health (medicine’s biggest backer) still flow to scientists engaged in research with no immediate bearing on health, many of these scientists are feeling a distinct chill.
Over the past decade, science’s funders have increasingly supported projects that use the discoveries and techniques of basic science to solve health problems. The era when basic science research represented the apex of the scientific achievement, and applied science was seen as pretty much grunt work, is over.
In the lead article of the magazine’s special report on basic science, Paul Berg, PhD, emeritus professor of biochemistry, describes the change in focus as natural and positive. “A half a century ago, biochemistry was pure basic science,” he said. “You didn’t hear about anybody patenting anything or trying to cure a disease. But now we can apply these very fundamental principles and tools to attack real clinical problems. There’s nothing demeaning about that.”
Yet Berg and other researchers at Stanford and elsewhere caution against leaving behind the classic “follow-your-nose” ethos that long held sway in the labs of basic biomedical scientists. In fact, while the proportion of NIH funding for basic versus applied projects conducted by non-NIH staff has remained constant for the past few years (according to the NIH, 56 percent basic, 41 percent applied, 3 percent “other”), the proportion of funds dedicated to R01 grants-those given to an individual investigator to pursue a particular research question-has declined steadily since 2000 relative to other types of NIH grants.
The report, “Pure science: Has the test tube lost its appeal?” gives readers a look at the world of basic research, with perspectives from the driven scientists working around the clock to the policy-makers to social historians. Also in the issue:
* A Q&A with U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin on re-creating America as a wellness society.
* The story of the friendships, heartbreak and sheer grit behind chemical and systems biology professor Tobias Meyer’s lab’s elucidation of a major biology puzzle-the cellular mechanism for calcium influx.
* A review of how Stanford’s medical school came to be such a giant of basic science research.
* A look at the medical school’s “crossover” programs training clinicians in the ways of researchers and vice versa.
* Perspectives on why scientists are only slowly adopting the newest Web tools for working collaboratively.
The magazine also includes other stories. Of note:
* A feature on a family grappling with their young son’s brain cancer, while a Stanford/Packard team creates the first lab culture of this deadly tumor. Warning: Nearly everyone who reads it cries.
* A piece on the burgeoning study of our internal microbial ecosystem, focusing on the pioneering work of David Relman, professor of infectious diseases.
The magazine, including Web-only features, is available online at http://stanmed.stanford.edu. To request the print version, call (650) 736-0297 or e-mail [email protected]. The magazine is produced by the Office of Communication & Public Affairs at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation’s top 10 medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
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