June 12, 2001
HHMI Announces National Competition for Appointment of Investigators Who Conduct Patient-Oriented Research
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) today
announced a national competition for the appointment of outstanding
physician-scientists as HHMI investigators. The Institute expects to select
between five and 10 new investigators by early next year.
“There has been a steady
decline in the number of physician-scientists who are pursuing careers that
integrate direct patient contact and fundamental biomedical research,” said
HHMI President Thomas R. Cech. “In this competition, we will be looking for
researchers who show the greatest potential for being able to translate basic
science discoveries into useful clinical applications.”
The
completion of the human genome sequence and the advent of other technological
advances such as those in the area of biomedical imaging are creating new
opportunities for bridging the gap between advances in basic science and
clinical research.The new competition seeks to identify researchers whose scientific work
is guided by their interaction with patients or other human subjects.
Although several of the 340 current HHMI
investigators are doing patient-oriented research, the majority of Hughes
scientists focus on basic research directed toward understanding the genetic,
molecular and cellular bases of human disease. This type of research is
generally characterized as being disease-oriented rather than patient-oriented,
because the research does not require significant contact with patients.
Letters
inviting nominations are being sent to 119 institutions, including medical
schools, research institutes, schools of public health and some independent
hospitals. A committee of distinguished biomedical scientists will evaluate the
nominations, which are due by September 10, 2001. It is anticipated that the
appointments will be announced by the summer of 2002.
The
Institute is a medical research organization that enters into long-term
collaboration agreements with universities and other academic research
organizations, where its investigators hold faculty appointments. Under these
agreements, HHMI investigators and their research teams, all of whom are
employees of the Institute, carry out their research with considerable freedom
and flexibility in HHMI laboratories located on various campuses. HHMI
investigators conduct basic biomedical research using the techniques of modern
molecular biology.
The previous competition for new investigators,
which was completed in 2000, resulted in the appointment of 48 researchers. The
Institute currently has about 340 investigators on its staff, including six
Nobel laureates and 74 members of the National Academy of Sciences.
The
Institute’s biomedical research expenditures this fiscal year will total about
$500 million. In addition to conducting medical research, the Institute’s large
grants program supports science education in the United States and the research
of a select group of biomedical scientists in other countries. HHMI grants will
total more than $100 million during the current fiscal year.
Established
in 1953 by the aviator-industrialist for whom it is named, the Institute’s
headquarters and conference center are located in Chevy Chase, Maryland, just outside
Washington, D.C.
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Avice Meehan
