As we have reported here, NIH’s proposal to establish a National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) has been met by a mixture of enthusiasm and skepticism from scientists, lawmakers and NIH itself – as evidenced by over 1,100 comments submitted to the NIH website. Despite these mixed feelings, NIH director Dr. Francis Collins has announced NCATS will move forward in October witha proposed budget of $700M a year. NCATS will be committed to translational research – or taking basic scientific discoveries forward to develop clinical treatments – normally the domain of biotech and pharma companies rather than the federal government. Many scientists are concerned NCATS will decimate funds available for independent basic research, much of which might ultimately also lead to advancing clinical treatments. Congress is currently in a 180 day comment period on the proposed reorganization of NIH that NCATS would require.
We will keep watching this story. Read a report from yesterday’s Chronicle of Higher Education.
NIH Translational Center Plans Proceed – Despite Mixed Responses
