U.S. biomedical research under siege,’ says Rockefeller President Nurse

[Guest guest]

Maybe this will help everyone to understand what I've been upset about. The

future of research that we're relying directly on for our

children........possibly that very scientist with the mind to figure this

all out.

Cheryl

Posted: January 18, 2006

‘U.S. biomedical research under siege,’ says Rockefeller President

Nurse

In an editorial published this week in one of the nation’s leading

biomedical journals, Cell, Rockefeller University President Nurse

suggests that the scientific research enterprise in the United States is in

danger of suffering major damage as a result of stagnated funding and the

failure of political leaders to take science seriously.

“As a newcomer to American science, it is a surprise for me to see the

slippage in confidence that has occurred during the last couple of years,”

says Nurse, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist who came to the United States

from the United Kingdom in 2003 to become president of Rockefeller. “Barely

a day goes by without a scientist expressing concern over issues such as

levels of funding, recruitment of researchers, restrictions on research

projects, and potential political interference in scientific judgments.”

By any measure – funding, awards, publications, clinical applications – the

United States has been the undisputed leader in biomedical research for

decades. Talented scientists from throughout the world were drawn to the

United States to study and work, fueling American technological innovation

and economic growth.

That position, however, is beginning to shift, and several recent trends

have given scientific leaders reason for grave concern, Nurse says. Among

them:

Decreases in funding. The funds available for biomedical research doubled

between 1998 and 2003, largely as a result of additional support from the

National Institutes of Health, which distributes federal grants. But in the

last three years, increases have not kept pace with inflation, leading to a

decline in the real size of individual research grants and increased

competition among researchers. The result is that our most talented

scientists spend more of their time applying for grants (the average

application is 25 pages in length and often requires several rewrites) and

less of their time doing science. The situation also encourages conservatism

both among applicants and among reviewers.

The stop-go funding is particularly troublesome for universities, which

increase the number of students and other trainees they take on during

periods of expanding budgets, only to see the jobs for which they are

training disappear. “The present policies are set to damage a whole

generation of young research workers, and the negative impact on recruitment

of the next generation of scientists will be seen for years to come,” Nurse

says.

Political attacks on science. The pursuit of science is the basis of the

technological innovation that has made the United States the pre-eminent

commercial nation in the world. But the Bush administration, apparently

supported by certain influential sections of society, has shown little

respect for or understanding of science, and has instead sought to undermine

scientists. The administration’s apparent support for teaching Intelligent

Design, a religiously based, nonscientific theory, in schools, and its

policy on the use of human embryonic stem cells, have created roadblocks to

scientific progress.

Institutions that host stem cell research, for instance, are in a deeply

uncomfortable situation. Measures demanded by the National Institutes of

Health mean they are forced to quarantine their non-registry stem cell lines

from any research funded by federal money, for example, and risk losing all

their NIH funding should even a single federally owned test tube end up on

the wrong tray. The strain and fear created by such policies are already

leading to friction between scientists who receive federal money and those

who circumvent it.

Hurdles to recruitment. The intellectual stimulation that occurs when

different cultures and traditions meet and interact is extremely important

in fostering scientific innovation. Yet recruiting scientists from overseas

has become more and more difficult because of increased immigration

bureaucracy and long delays in visa processing. The situation at home is not

much better: despite efforts by organizations such as the U.S. National

Academy of Sciences to improve science education in schools, the U.S. fails

to generate enough home-grown scientists to drive the engine of scientific

enterprise.

Public misunderstandings about science. When politicians fail to take

science seriously or, worse, deliberately confuse science in order to

promote a particular agenda, they often create misunderstandings among the

public about how science works and what it can do. “The dialog between

scientists and the public, which is critical to our earning their trust and

confidence, is being eroded by polarizing debates in the media and the

confrontation and combative approach taken by some politicians,” says Nurse.

“Since the Enlightenment, science has been based on respect, openness,

rationalism and objectivity, and it is being damaged by a political

environment that does not share these values,” says Nurse. “Though science

remains strong, it is under siege in the U.S. and unless this trend is

corrected it will suffer damage that will have repercussions well beyond the

scientific community.”

Cell 124: 9-12 (January 13, 2006)

Contact: ph Bonner (212) 327-8998

newswire@...