Contents

• January
• February
• March

January

January 13, 2005: NIBIB Invites Comments on Draft Strategic Plan

The NIBIB has developed a DRAFT 5-year Strategic Plan and seeks input from all stakeholders who are interested in the research programs and activities within our mission. The NIBIB has developed a set of goals, strategies, and objectives designed to maximize the Institute's impact on human health. This Strategic Plan will provide the framework and action plan for the Institute's direction over the next 5 years and will help determine how the NIBIB will allocate resources to support and enhance scientific research and research training.

We invite you to provide comments electronically on the DRAFT NIBIB Strategic Plan. We are asking that comments be received by February 28, 2005.

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February

February 4, 2005: Final Report Issued 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 page.

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 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 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. 

February 10, 2005: Optical Imagers See Tumors Through Flesh and Skin

A team of chemists, bioengineers, and medical researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Minnesota have used nano-sized particles embedded with bright, light-emitting molecules to visualize a tumor more than one centimeter below the skin surface using only infrared light. Their findings, which represent a proof of principle for the use of emissive polymersomes to target and visualize tumors, appeared in the February 7 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

This research is supported by grants from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the National Cancer Institute.

Additional details can be viewed at: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=744.

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March

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 (1) 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 are posted here on the NIBIB Web site.

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