| NIGMS makes strategic investments in
fields of science and in scientists, whose creativity and independent
findings often coalesce into major research advances. A case in
point is the recent discovery by a number of Institute grantees
that microRNAs, a newly identified type of genetic material, play
a central role in controlling gene activity. The insight was paradigm-shifting
because scientists previously thought that only proteins could do
this job. By also revealing that microRNAs are key to cancer and
stem-cell growth, the research offers a new target for the development
of medicines and other treatments.
The tremendous value of long-term NIGMS investments is evident
in the 2005 Nobel Prize in chemistry, as well. The Institute has
provided decades of support to two of the three chemists who won
the prize: Robert Grubbs, Ph.D., of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena and Richard Schrock, Ph.D., of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in Cambridge. They were honored for developing
important chemical catalysts that have a wealth of pharmaceutical
and other industrial uses.
In addition to supporting individuals, NIGMS has been ahead of
the curve in recruiting able and diverse teams of researchers to
tackle difficult problems that require a multidisciplinary approach
from the start. Many in the scientific community have embraced the
Institute’s “glue grant” program, launched 5 years
ago to promote collaborations across traditional academic and disciplinary
boundaries. An example of the success of this program is the recent
identification of a genetic signature that is a first step toward
predicting how a severely injured patient will fare in response
to treatment.
Another highly promising NIGMS team science approach is the Models
of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) program, which draws on
the expertise of mathematicians, computer scientists, biologists,
social scientists, and others to model infectious disease outbreaks.
Although MIDAS scientists are still in the early stages of crafting
tools and gathering underlying data, their work is already providing
guidance for policy development in preparation for public health
emergencies.
More complete descriptions of the scientific opportunities NIGMS
offers, as well as the results of those opportunities and their
relevance to medicine, appear in the following sections.
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