INTRAMURAL RESEARCH

Question. Your intramural research program has grown to 7.5 percent of your overall budget, but this is still below the average for NIH as a whole. What plans to you have for your laboratory programs? Have you been given adequate space? What difficulties have you experienced in recruiting scientists for areas of your program that you would like to expand?

Answer. In 1990, the NIAMS established two new laboratories in its intramural research program: the Laboratory of Skin Biology and the Laboratory of Structural Biology Research. We are currently recruiting an individual to lead a Section on Genetics within the Laboratory on Skin Biology to study the genetic basis for a variety of heritable skin diseases. The Laboratory of Structural Biology Research is expanding its work with the Division of Computer Research and Technology in the area of image processing and analysis of macromolecules; it is also recruiting for a senior scientist to pursue x-ray diffraction analysis of proteins.

Establishment of a Laboratory of Bone and Connective Tissue Biology is the next step in expanding the Institute's intramural program in accordance with the plan submitted to Congress in 1988. The first director of the Orthopaedics Research Unit has recently accepted a position outside the NIH. A new director is being vigorously recruited with the advice of leaders in academic orthopaedics. We also have plans to recruit for a director of the Laboratory of Bone and Connective Tissue Biology.

Expansion of the Intramural Program depends upon space being vacated by other NIH Institutes that are moving to new quarters. We expect that some additional space will be available by the end of this fiscal year.

QUESTIONS SUBMITTTED BY SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER

SPORTS MEDICINE

Question. Dr. Shulman, much of the Nation's attention will be focused on sports this weekend as the NCAA Basketball Tournament gets underway. Let me note, for the record Mr. Chairman, that five Pennsylvania teams are participating in the tournament. There has been much publicity in recent years regarding sports related injuries. What are the Institute's plans for research in the study of sports injuries?

Answer. The NIAMS has organized and supported a Workshop on Sports Injuries in Youth: Surveillance Strategies to be held at the NIH on April 8-9, 1991. Speakers will discuss the background of existing surveillance systems and the scope of the problem, identify important data elements, and explore the resources needed to develop surveillance systems for sports injuries. Invited participants include orthopaedic surgeons, coaches, trainers, representatives from state health departments, epidemiologists, and other interested parties. The workshop and its written summary will encourage additional research applications in this field.

In the broader field of sports medicine research, the NIAMS has successfully increased the support for research grants in the past five years. To date there have been 70 grant applications received in response to the Program Announcement on Musculoskeletal Fitness and Sports Medicine, of which 28 were funded. Both basic and clinical science projects cover a wide range of topics from tendon injury healing to clinical studies comparing reconstruction surgery for anterior cruciate ligaments. The most recent special effort of the

NIAMS in the sports area was support of a workshop and book on sports-induced inflammation.

Question. Particular concerns have been raised of late regarding the use by athletes of anabolic steroids. Has the Institute supported any studies examining the effects of these steriods by young athletes?

Answer. The NIAMS has not supported research projects on anabolic steriods. We have had very few meritorious applications to consider. Clinical studies of anabolic steroid use are hindered by the reluctance of users to reveal their use and participate in well designed investigations. We would welcome meritorious applications for research in this important field.

NATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH RESOURCES

STATEMENT OF DR. ROBERT A. WHITNEY, DIRECTOR

BUDGET REQUEST

Senator HARKIN. Again my apologies for the delay due to a vote. Dr. Whitney, we have your budget request for $320 million. I notice you have the distinction of being the only center or institute that is requesting a cut below your 1991 appropriations. In spite of this cut, I notice that your clinical research, research technology, and animal sciences programs all would grow at rates above infla

tion.

Dr. Whitney, welcome again. Please proceed with your statement.

Dr. WHITNEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present the President's request for the fiscal year 1992 appropriation for the National Center for Research Resources.

Our three largest research centers programs, the General Clinical Research Centers, the Biomedical Research Technology Centers, and the Regional Primate Research Centers, as a group, comprise the largest national contribution of resources specifically identified for use in biomedical research. This request includes funding to continue support for these centers.

Like all of the programs in NCRR, these three resource centers programs provide effective mechanisms for containing research costs because they offer economies of scale and sharing of resources not otherwise available. The resources which the NCRR has developed and now supports are too expensive to be provided within a single research project or even by a cluster of individual projects. In addition to supporting the major resource centers for NIH and PHS-funded investigators, the NCRR continually develops new resources hastening the progress of research. For example, developing a wide spectrum of new models of human disease processes is a principal focus of the NCRR's new research project grant activity. Much of the 1991 increase in the biological models and materials research program was in support of research project grants. The 1992 request would continue that program and also continue the development of mammalian models in the Regional Primate Research Centers and Laboratory Animal Sciences Centers and computer-based models in the Biomedical Research Technology Centers.

The research capabilities of institutions with predominantly minority enrollment will be developed further through the research centers in minority institutions program and construction of new research facilities at historically black colleges and universities and similar minority institutions through the $15 million requested in 1992 for research facilities improvement.

PREPARED STATEMENT

Of special note, the NCRR will continue to help develop one of the Nation's most important areas of investment in the future, future biomedical researchers. NCRR will continue to increase support for minority high school students and their science teachers to experience the excitement of the hands-on research environment. Woven together, these programs strengthen and enhance the environments in which research advancements can take place.

The total 1992 budget request for NCRR is $320,975,000. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. [The statement follows:]

STATEMENT OF DR. ROBERT A. WHITNEY

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: I am pleased to present the Fiscal Year 1992 budget request for the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). Many of the breakthroughs and research advancements described during these hearings were made possible by or came about as a direct outgrowth of the resources and infrastructure developed and provided by the NCRR.

The interrelated network of resource centers supported by the NCRR meets the needs of biomedical researchers across the spectrum of requirements, from clinical research to biomedical technology to animal models. Because the NCRR's centers are resource centers, they are the backbone that keeps the research enterprise, carried on through research project grants, research centers, and other research awards, upright and moving forward. Our centers represent approximately one-third of NIH's budget for research centers.

Our three largest research centers programs--the General Clinical Research Centers (GCRCs), the Biomedical Research Technology Centers, and the Regional Primate Research Centers--as a group, comprise the largest national collection of resources specifically identified for use in biomedical research. Our GCRCs are home for more than 4,500 research studies and projects funded by all the NIH components across the entire range of biomedical research. For example, investigators at the GCRCs have been pivotal in the development of the technology for kidney, liver, bone marrow, and heart transplants as well as those for other organs. The first liver transplant was performed in the early 1960's at the University of Colorado GCRC. The co-recipient of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, did some of his pioneering work in bone marrow transplantation at the University of Washington GCRC. Important, ground. breaking research on transplantation of pancreatic islet cells is ongoing at the University of Miami GCRC. AIDS research is being supported at ever increasing levels, both pediatric and adult, and both inpatient and outpatient. We are proud of the planning that allowed us to have the clinical research infrastructure in place for use in AIDS clinical trials--the GCRCs host studies from many of the AIDS Clinical Trials Groups funded by the NIAID as well as AIDS studies funded by other NIH institutes.

Some of the really exciting developments in research are now occurring in