Biophysical Society Newsletter - May 2016

4

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2016

MAY

Public Affairs

researchers will be honored with two other teams of researchers —yet to be named — at the fifth annual Golden Goose Award ceremony at the Library of Congress on September 22. NIH Leaders Reiterate Commitment to Basic Science To demonstrate National Institute of Health’s (NIH’s) commitment to supporting basic re- search, all of NIH’s senior leadership and Institute and Center directors signed a letter to the editor of Science , published March 25, reiterating NIH’s commitment to basic science. The letter makes clear that the NIH leadership is responding to feedback that it is viewed as favoring applied research over basic research in the awards it makes. NIH Director of Extramural Research Mike Lauer , wrote about this letter to the editor as well as NIH’s commit- ment to funding basic research in a March 25 blog post. In the post he writes about how funding basic science is at the core of the NIH mission. He also points out that an analysis of the NIH bud- get shows that over half of NIH’s research fund- ing supports basic research, but the number of basic research applications submitted to NIH has decreased. The effort to show this commitment has also made its way into grant application instructions. The in- structions for the public health relevance statement, required to be completed by applicants, have been updated to make clear that a proposal could have short-term or long-term contributions to human health. The instructions now read: Using no more than two or three sentences, describe the relevance of this research to public health. For example, NIH applicants can describe how, in the short or long term, the research would contribute to fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and/or the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and/or reduce illness and disability.

Creators of National Longitudinal Study on Public Health Honored with Golden Goose Award Five researchers, whose determined pursuit of knowledge about the factors that influence ado- lescent health led to one of the most influential longitudinal studies of human health — with far-reaching and often unanticipated impacts on society — will receive the first 2016 Golden Goose Award. The researchers are Peter Bearman , Barbara Entwisle , Kathleen Mullan Harris , Ronald Rindfuss , and Richard Udry , who worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to design and execute the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, or Add Health for short. The social scientists’ landmark, federally funded study has not only illuminated the impact of social and environmental factors on adolescent health — often in unanticipated ways — but also continues to help shape the national conversation around human health. Their work has provided unantici- pated insights into how adolescent health affects wellbeing long into adulthood and has laid essential groundwork for research into the nation’s obesity epidemic over the past two decades. “Five bold researchers wanted to learn more about adolescent health. Who knew that one federal study would change the way doctors approach everything from AIDS to obesity?” said Rep. Jim Cooper (D- TN), who first proposed the Golden Goose Award. “Decades later, this work is still paying off, help- ing Americans lead longer, healthier lives. America always comes out ahead when we invest in scientific research.” The Golden Goose Award honors scientists whose federally funded work may have seemed odd or obscure when it was first conducted but has resulted in significant benefits to society. The Biophysi- cal Society is a supporter of the award. The five