AIDS Vaccine Panel Discussion [Minutes]

7-APR-97 PACHA AIDS VACCINE PANEL DISCUSSION - p. 50

I happen to be a mother with a son that's infected. My 10th grandchild will be
born next month, and I see them all at risk for this infection, and I don't want to spend
any more time as a mother talking with other mothers about sons and daughters that
are infected. So that's where I'm coming from.
I happen also to be a scientist. I'm a nurse at the University of California-San
Francisco, so I do believe in the scientific approach and look for always the research to
tell us the answers.
I want to pick up on something that Dr. Sadoff said and Dr. Russell said, and
then ask Dr. Fauci and Dr. Baltimore each a question. Dr. Sadoff, you said about
vaccine failures: how necessary these are to tell us and give us guidance. That happens
to be my bias also. And, Dr. Russell, you also picked up on that when you talked
about field trial results which should guide the development process and not the vote of
the scientific community.
Then, Dr. Fauci, you talked about the balance between basic research and
empirical research. My concern is -- and I want to ask you a question -- you talked
about that balance. How can that be when what I perceive happening at NIH is that
those study sections, the review panels, are basically basic researchers, and I know that
they function and live within a certain paradigm and culture? So how do we make that
shift to another paradigm and to another culture? That's very, very difficult.
DR. FAUCI: We're very aware of that, and in fact that has been one of the things that I've
been troubled by. Some of the specific questions that need to be asked are not
glamorous or sexy questions, but just need to get answers to, when a standard study
section may not look as favorably upon that.
We will be developing what we call special emphasis panels, which is not a
totally new study section, but it is a group of individuals that are called together with
the mandate to look carefully at the relative priorities of grants that fall into this
category and don't need to -- maybe inappropriately -- compete with other scientific
endeavors. So we are addressing that. It's a very good point. There's more to the
basic research balance with empiricism than that, but that's one step that we need to
address. I agree with you, it's important, and it's being addressed.
MS. MIRAMONTES: Thank you. Dr. Baltimore, you talked about the targeted funding, the
new, creative targeted funding. Can you tell us when that start-up date will be, and
how flexible is it going to be, for instance, for the small biotech firms to have access to
those funds, and how much are those grants going to be? Do you know offhand?
DR. BALTIMORE: Yes. The grant deadline for applications is the 23rd of May. The grants
will be $150,000, direct costs maximum, for 2 years. Actually, it's not a total