Promoting New Discoveries by Focusing on the Basic Sciences

Originally Published MDDI June 2002

VERBATIM

The NIBIB plans, conducts, fosters, and supports an integrated program of research and training. As its acting director, Donna Dean has helped focus the efforts of the newest member of the NIH family.

Mandated by law in December 2000, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) was established to "improve health by promoting fundamental discoveries, design and development, and translation and assessment of technological capabilities." When the NIBIB establishment plan was approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy G. Thompson, in April 2001, Donna J. Dean, PhD, was named acting director of the institute. Dean has guided the formation and development of the NIBIB since that time.

On May 8 of this year, Roderic I. Pettigrew, PhD, MD, was named as the first permanent NIBIB director, and will begin his appointment in late August or early September. Prior to this announcement, Dean was asked to share her thoughts on the mission and course of the new institute, as well as the critical relationship between the practice of medicine and advances in basic science and new technologies.

Q. You've said, "Tomorrow's medicine will be built on the emergence of discoveries in basic science and development of new technologies." How would you describe the role of the institute in this process?

A. I think the role of our institute is absolutely embedded in our mission statement, in which we say we are going to promote fundamental discoveries. We are looking at the design and development of technical capabilities. But we are also looking at the basic science infrastructure that would be created by research in physics, chemistry, materials science, mathematics, and computer sciences. So we are a fundamental research and discovery institute to create new knowledge, with ultimate application to medical practice. Our mission statement was very carefully thought through to capture that as a primary mission.

I actually consider our mission to be fourfold in that we're going to develop new knowledge, we're going to foster new technologies, we're going to nurture new research, and we're going to facilitate cross-cutting capabilities. So those are our four action verbs—develop, foster, nurture, and facilitate.

Q. How does the work of the institute mesh with the objectives of the other entities within NIH?

A. We basically have shared interests with all the other 20-plus funding institutes and centers at NIH. Where we differ is that the categorical disease-related institutes, such as the National Cancer Institute or the National Institute on Aging, have a primary focus on diseases or specific conditions.

At NIBIB, our area of research interest would be broader in the sense of, "What are the new imaging technologies and techniques that can be developed to better visualize the human body, or visualize aberrations from the normal human body?" We're not focused on cancer, teeth, or anything that is specifically within the purview of a sister institute.

Q. Is there collaboration on any specific projects or initiatives?

A. We've joined with a number of initiatives that represent areas of common interest. On our Web site, we have listed research funding opportunities. And there's one in particular dealing with probes for microimaging the nervous system that we joined with the National Institutes of Mental Health, Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and Aging. Obviously, our specific interest in that initiative would be for techniques that, again, could image the nervous system in general.

That is, we would be more interested in broad applications in imaging the nervous system; you could presume that the National Institute of Mental Health would be interested in those that image the nervous system with a particular interest in seeing if you could visualize normal and abnormal states of mental functioning. We are interested in it in terms of developing a new technology. That is, can you image the brain better, even if you are not sure whether it's relevant to any of the neurological disorders or diseases, or learning, or behavioral aspects, or whatever.

Q. In September 2001, the institute assumed the administration of the Bioengineering Consortium. How would you describe the function of BECON?

A. The function of the Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) is to ensure that activities related to bioengineering happen across the NIH. That is, almost every institute at NIH participates in bioengineering and bioengineering activities. NIBIB's role in the BECON is twofold.

Our first role is as a scientific member, sitting around the table with our other institute colleagues who are saying this is what NIH should be doing in bioengineering. Our second role is that we support BECON administratively. It's not a leadership role in setting the agenda for the consortium. In fact, the chair of the BECON this year is Dr. Jeff Schloss from the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Now obviously we recognize that, for NIBIB, bioengineering is a key part of our institute and that there are many opportunities we can identify through our participation in BECON activities that are relevant to us but that might not be relevant to other institutes. Or there may be areas and issues that we'll find we should pay attention to.

Q. In your view, what are some of the more promising areas of research?

A. We've identified in words many of the areas of endeavor that we feel are appropriate for the institute. But some of the areas that we've talked about for 2003 are going to be in biosensors, development of new imaging technologies, and biomaterials as the field would relate not only to devices but perhaps tissues—the tissue engineering facet of biomaterials.

We also have an interest in computational applications because the NIBIB part of bioinformatics is how you do image processing, storage, and analysis, as well as how to store and process information from engineering programs.

These aren't the only things we're doing, but these are examples of areas that we're particularly interested in.

Q. But NIBIB grants are not limited to these areas?

A. Right, we're just trying to use these to get people to think about the possibilities. For example, when you talk about bioinformatics, there is a part of it that could also involve modeling, simulation, and robotics. There are facets of data processing and data retrieval that may not necessarily relate to imaging or bioengineering per se, but might actually be relevant. When I talk about the institute, particularly with engineers or physicists, I tell them that if you can think about any facet of engineering as it might relate to human biology and health, that's the real foundation of the institute's areas of interest.

Q. The institute's mission also includes the training, education, and career development for the next generation of researchers. How is that being accomplished?

A. We're thinking about what programs we are going to have to develop. Right now, we are participants in the generic training programs that NIH has, including postdoctoral fellowships, career-level training, and predoctoral training. Those are very generic activities at the NIH, but we are also thinking about what we can do that is new.

For example, we could provide summer research training for postgraduate students, or possibly even undergraduates, to give them experiences so they gain an appreciation of what the bioengineering and imaging sciences encompass and to further their education in those fields.

Right now, we're trying to better understand uniquely what we need to do. NIBIB has a professor of engineering from North Carolina State University, Troy Nagle, who is spending a six-month sabbatical just taking that task on as his project. He hopes to help us articulate what the needs are and offer some possible solutions for us to consider.

That's a pretty big ticket if you're looking at someone who has been trained as a mechanical or electrical engineer and has never had any exposure to any of the life sciences. And on the other side, you have to think about the people who come from the medical areas who need to have this quantitative engineering and physics understanding.

So how do you give those people who are the radiologists or the interventional cardiologists or the surgeons enough technical knowledge so they can be not only a good physician but also understand the quantitative sciences and be a good researcher? It goes both ways—and it's not easy. But I believe that NIBIB and NIH are up to this challenge.

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