Major NIH Roadmap Themes

NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., is making a major investment in the future of science with five-year grants totaling more than $105 million to 41 exceptionally innovative investigators, many of whom are in the early stages of their careers.“Novel ideas and new investigators are essential ingredients for scientific progress, and the creative scientists we recognize with NIH Director’s Pioneer Awards and NIH Director’s New Innovator Awards are well-positioned to make significant — and potentially transformative — discoveries in a variety of areas,” said Zerhouni.

NIH roadmap: What is it?

The NIH Roadmap is an integrated vision to deepen our understanding of biology, stimulate interdisciplinary research teams, and reshape clinical research to accelerate medical discovery and improve people’s health. Most of the initiatives began in FY 2004. Other initiatives started in FY 2005 and beyond, depending upon the budget and other emerging needs.

The three NIH Roadmap themes are as follows:

1. New Pathways to Discovery  

Building Blocks, Biological Pathways, and Networks       

Molecular Libraries and Imaging                             

 Structural Biology                             

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology                           

 Nanomedicine                             

Human Microbiome Project New                             

 Epigenomics New

 2. Research Teams of the Future 

NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., is making a major investment in the future of science with five-year grants totaling more than $105 million to 41 exceptionally innovative investigators, many of whom are in the early stages of their careers.

The scale and complexity of today’s biomedical research problems increasingly demands that scientists move beyond the confines of their own discipline and explore new organizational models for team science. For example, imaging research often requires radiologists, physicists, cell biologists, and computer programmers to work together in integrated teams. Many scientists will continue to pursue individual research projects; however, they will be encouraged to make changes in the way they approach the scientific enterprise. NIH wants to stimulate new ways of combining skills and disciplines in both the physical and biological sciences. The Director’s Pioneer Award will encourage investigators to take on creative, unexplored avenues of research that carry a relatively high potential for failure, but also possess a greater chance for truly groundbreaking discoveries. In addition, novel partnerships, such as those between the public and private sectors, will be encouraged to accelerate the movement of scientific discoveries from the bench to the bedside.

As part of its theme, Research Teams of the Future, the NIH Roadmap seeks to encourage scientists and scientific institutions to test alternative models for conducting research. The implementation groups in this area are:    

 High-Risk Research                                                  

 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award                                                 

  NIH Director’s New Innovator Award                            

  Interdisciplinary Research                            

  Public-Private Partnerships

3. Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise                 

Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise Initiatives    

Clinical Research Networks and NECTAR                                                  

 Clinical Outcomes Assessment                                                  

 Clinical Research Training                                                 

 Clinical Research Policy Analysis and Coordination                                                  

Translational Research

Taken together, the components of these initiatives are part of a carefully considered national portfolio of research to meet the health demands of the 21st century.

Refer to NIH Roadmap Web site at nihroadmap.nih.gov and further information about NIH can be found at its Web site: www.nih.gov.

New Roadmap Emphasis Areas for 2008  

 Possible Topics for Major Roadmap Initiatives

Microbiome:

 The Microbiome is the full collection of microbes (bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc.) that naturally exist within the human body. Initiatives in this area would focus on developing a deeper understanding of these communities of microbes in order to determine how they affect human health.

Protein Capture/Proteome Tools:

The Proteome is the complete set of proteins in the body. Efforts in this area would support developing and making available to the scientific community high quality probes specific to every protein in the human and in desired animal models. This would allow the ability to characterize protein function in health and disease and to monitor the markers of a disease in order to deploy early prevention efforts and to identify potential therapeutic targets.

Phenotyping Services and Tools

A human Phenotype is the total physical appearance and constitution of a person, often determined by multiple genes and influenced by environmental interactions. Initiatives in this area would encourage the development of resources to systematically catalog human phenotypes in an effort to characterize complex diseases and disorders.
Inflamation as a Common Mechanism of Disease

While significant breakthroughs have occurred in our understanding of inflammation, research is needed to further understand inflammatory processes. Because inflammation is broadly implicated in many diseases and conditions, this initiative would be valuable in uncovering as-yet-unknown immune mechanisms and mediators of inflammation as well as genetic factors, environmental triggers, and the relationship of inflammation to disease.
Epigenetics

Epigenetics is the study of stable genetic modifications that result in changes in gene expression and function without a corresponding alteration in DNA sequence. The epigenome is a catalog of the epigenetic modifications that occur in the genome. Epigenetic changes have been associated with disease, but further progress requires the development of better methods to detect the modifications and a clearer understanding of factors that drive these changes.

Genetic Connectivity Map

The Connectivity Map is an effort to discover and demonstrate the linkages between diseases, drug candidates, and genetic manipulation.

Transient Molecular Complexes:

Transient Molecular Complexes are temporary molecular complexes that are continuously created and destroyed within our cells. Our current level of understanding of cellular biology and the complex interactions that lead to the development and progression of diseases is primarily based upon easily characterized static models (which do not include transient complexes). Understanding interactions within transient complexes is essential for robust modeling that can accurately describe how diseases develop and progress.
Regenerative Medicine:

Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine involves the engineering of healthy, functional tissues/organs in vitro for implantation and the remodeling or regeneration of tissue in vivo to repair, replace, preserve, or enhance tissue/organ function.

Pharmacogenomics:

Pharmacogenomics applies the power of genomics to the prediction of individual responses to medication. By determining the variations in the human genome that predict likelihood of response (or susceptibility to adverse effects), the type and dose of medication can be adapted to each person’s unique genetic makeup, thereby assuring greater efficacy and greater safety of treatment.  

Bioinformatics:

Bioinformatics applies principles of information sciences and technologies to make the vast, diverse, and complex life sciences data more understandable and useful.