October 21, 2005 – UPDATED BIOENGINEERING NANOTECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENTS RELEASED
New program announcements have been released for STTR and SBIR applications to the Bioengineering Nanotechnology Initiative. New guidance on electronic submission is included in these announcements. For more information, please visit the program announcement web pages: PA-06-008 (STTR) and PA-06-009 (SBIR). For more information about NIH Nanotechnology and Nanoscience, please go to the BECON Nanotechnology Page.
October 6, 2005 – BECON NAMES NEW NIH CONTACT FOR BRP, BRG, AND K-25 PROGRAMS
Dr. Henry Khachaturian, a Program Director in the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, will serve as the new NIH contact for the Bioengineering Research Partnership (currently PAR-04-023), Bioengineering Research Grant (currently PA-02-011), and K-25 (currently PA-02-127) programs. Dr. Khachaturian replaces Dr. Richard Swaja who has held this position for the past five years.
Dr. Khachaturian can be reached at 301-451-4772 or khachath@mail.nih.gov
September 21, 2005 – BECON NAMES NEW EXECUTIVE SECRETARY AND NIH CONTACT FOR BRP, BRG, AND K-25 PROGRAMS
Elijah Weisberg, a bioengineer in the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, has been named the new Executive Secretary for the NIH Bioengineering Consortium. Mr. Weisberg replaces Dr. Richard Swaja who has held this position for the past five years.
Mr. Weisberg can be reached at 301-451-4792 or weisberge@mail.nih.gov.
August 17, 2005 – BECON CONDUCTS FIFTH BRP GRANTEE MEETING ON August 15-16
The fifth Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP) Grantee Meeting was conducted on August 15-16, 2005, at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The BRP Program was first announced in October 1999 and is aimed at encouraging and supporting multi-disciplinary biomedical research that requires partnerships among scientific disciplines and organizations. This meeting is aimed at showcasing research supported by the BRP grants, providing a forum for grantees and NIH program staff to identify and discuss related issues, and facilitating the development of future research partnerships. A total of about 225 people attended this meeting and included about 160 BRP grantees and post-docs, BECON members, NIH program staff, and staff from other Federal agencies.
The program included a “NIH Update” session, invited talks on nanotechnology opportunities (Dr. Jeff Schloss – NHGRI) and international bioengineering programs (Dr. Sohi Rastegar – NSF), poster presentations by all grantees, twenty-four ten-minute grantee presentations (categorized as basic, translational, and applied research) aimed at showcasing the broad scope of approaches and applications to biomedical research supported by the BRP Program, and general discussion sessions. Drs. Henry Halperin (Johns Hopkins) and Jonathan Wolpaw (Wadsworth Research Center) presented twenty-minute featured talks on their BRP projects which have produced dramatic advances in biomedical research and healthcare. A featured luncheon presentation titled “I’ve Looked at Life From Both Sides Now – Bioengineering and Apologies to Judy Collins” was provided on August 15 by Dr. Wendy Baldwin, Executive Vice President of the University of Kentucky.
The meeting was chaired by Drs. Dan Sullivan (BECON Chair and NCI) and Richard Swaja (Executive Secretary and NIBIB) and was coordinated by a BECON Subcommittee that included Richard Swaja and Elijah Weisberg (Co-Chairs - NIBIB), Tim Baldwin (NHLBI), Eileen Bradley (CSR), Andrew Houser (NIBIB), Christine Kelley (NIBIB), Martha Lundberg (NHLBI), Lucia Molina (NIBIB), and Pushpa Tandon (CSR).
A Web site contained information about this meeting is being developed and will be released in the near future. The site will contain the meeting program, slides used by invited presenters, a list of attendees, and the conference book.
June 9, 2005 – FIRST MEETING OF NATIONAL BIOSECURITY ADVISORY BOARD PLANNED FOR JUNE 30
The inaugural meeting of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) will be held Thursday, June 30, and Friday, July 1,2005 at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda, 7400 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD. The meeting is open to the public and will convene from 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. on June 30 and 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. on July 1. You may also watch a live webcast of the meeting by accessing the following Web site: http://www.biosecurityboard.gov.
The NSABB was established to advise federal departments and agencies on ways to minimize the possibility that knowledge and technologies emanating from vitally important biological research will be misused to threaten public health or national security, so-called dual use research. The Board is charged with advising on the development of:
- guidelines for the oversight of dual-use research;
- national policies governing the publication and communication of
sensitive research results;
- a code of conduct for scientists and laboratory workers that can
be adopted by professional organizations and institutions engaged
in life sciences research;
- training programs and materials to educate the research community
about effective biosecurity; and
- strategies for fostering international collaboration regarding the
oversight of dual use research.
If you are interested in presenting oral comments at the meeting, please notify the NSABB Executive Director, Thomas Holohan M.D., at 301-496-9838 no later than June 20, 2005. Oral presentations by organizations are limited to one representative per group and must be submitted in writing by June 17, 2005 for consideration. These may be submitted via e-mail to nsabb@od.nih.gov with “NSABB Public Comment” as the subject line or by regular mail to 6705 Rockledge Drive, Suite 750, Bethesda, MD 20892 (Attention Dr. Ansalan Stewart) and should include a letter of intent, a brief description of the organization represented, and a short description of the oral presentation. In addition, individuals may submit written comments to the committee by the same method.
Submissions by individuals should include the individual’s name, address, telephone number, and, when applicable, business or professional affiliation.
MARCH 25, 2005 – NIBIB AND DOE CONDUCT JOINT WORKSHOP ON BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the Department of Energy (DOE) conducted a joint “Workshop on Biomedical Applications of Nanotechnology” on March 17-18 at the Bethesda Hyatt Hotel in Bethesda, Maryland. The workshop was sponsored by the NIBIB, the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES), and the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER). A total of about 200 researchers, program managers, and administrative staff from the NIH, DOE national laboratories, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) attended the meeting. The program included presentations on related programs and funding opportunities at NIH institutes, overviews of nanotechnology centers at DOE laboratories and the NIST, plenary presentations on various aspects of bionanotechnology research, featured talks by invited speakers, and about 65 poster displays. The goals of the workshop were to (l) make DOE national laboratory scientists and NIST researchers aware of NIH needs and potential new biomedical applications on nanotechnology, (2) make NIH researchers and program staff aware of DOE and NIST technologic resources and expertise, (3) identify scientific opportunities associated with DOE/NIH/NIST interactions, and (4) promote interagency collaborations among research scientists at the NIH. DOE laboratories, and the NIST. Workshop Coordinators were Drs. Peter Kirchner and Richard Swaja of the NIBIB, Dr. John Miller of DOE/BES, and Dr. Michael Viola of DOE/BER. Ms Stacy Wallick of the NIBIB coordinated meeting logistics and overall program organization. Details of this workshop including the agenda, prospectus, list of abstracts, and files of the featured talks will be posted on the NEWS AND EVENTS page of the NIBIB Web site at http://www.nibib.nih.gov.
FEBRUARY 4, 2005 – NIBIB AND NSF ISSUE REPORT FOR INTERAGENCY CONFERENCE ON BRIDGING THE SCIENCES
The final report has been issued for the “Conference on Research at the Interface of the Life and Physical Sciences: Bridging the Sciences” which was conducted on November 9, 2004, at the Holiday Inn Select Hotel in Bethesda , Maryland . The report can be accessed by clicking on the FINAL REPORT link on the conference Web site at http://www.nibib.nih.gov/publicPage.cfm?pageID=2867 .
The meeting was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the National Science Foundation (NSF) and planned by an Interagency Coordinating Committee which included representatives from the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIH, and NSF. The conference was held in response to a recommendation from a May 10, 2004, interagency workshop ( http://www.nibib.nih.gov/publicPage.cfm?pageID=2869 ) that a meeting of scientific researchers be conducted to obtain community input on how to bridge the life and physical sciences. A total of about 170 people attended this meeting including 29 invited primary discussants from the life, physical, and interface sciences; investigators from a broad range of scientific disciplines; Congressional staff; and representatives of universities, technical societies, media, foundations, and Federal agencies. The one-day program consisted of two sets of breakout and plenary sessions aimed at addressing the three questions and developing consensus results. Extramural Conference Chairs were Drs. Ken Dill (UCSF), Claire Fraser (TIGR), and Jose Onuchic (UCSD). Intramural Chairs were Drs. Bruce Hamilton (NSF) and Richard Swaja (NIBIB).
To address the general objective of how to bridge the life and physical sciences, the following questions were considered:
- What are high-priority issues and opportunities that will ultimately require the combined application of the physical, computational, social, and life sciences to address?
- What are major challenges and barriers to bridging the sciences?
- What actions or approaches are necessary to bridge the sciences and realize the potential benefits
The report contains detailed conference proceedings and consensus responses to the three questions. In addition to the final report, the conference Web site also contains general information about the meeting and links to (l) the conference agenda, (2) a list of Interagency Coordinating Committee Members, (3) a list of primary discussants, (4) the breakout session assignments.
Current plans are for the NIH and NSF coordinators to convene a meeting of Federal agency representatives to discuss results of the May 10 workshop and this conference and to determine a course of action. Other plans are to post this report on the NIBIB and NSF Web sites and to have the extramural co-chairs meet with NIH and NSF leadership to discuss results of the conference.
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