Biological - NIH Office of Science Education - National Institutes of ...

Sleep, Sleep Disorders, and Biological Rhythms
Peer Review
Each research grant application undergoes a peerreview
process.
A panel of scientific experts, primarily from outside
the government, who are active and productive
researchers in the biomedical sciences, first
evaluates the scientific merit of the application.
Then, a national advisory council or board, composed
of eminent scientists as well as public members
who are interested in health issues or the
biomedical sciences, determines the project’s overall
merit and priority in advancing the research
agenda of the particular NIH funding institute.
Altogether, about 38,500 research and training
applications are reviewed annually through the
NIH peer-review system. At any given time, NIH
supports 35,000 grants in universities, medical
schools, and other research and research training
institutions, both nationally and internationally.
Who Are the Scientists NIH Supports?
Scientific progress depends mainly on the scientist.
About 50,000 principal investigators—working
in every state and in several foreign countries,
from every specialty in medicine, every medical
discipline, and at every major university and
medical school—receive NIH extramural funding
to explore unknown areas of medical science.
Supporting and conducting NIH’s extramural and
intramural programs are roughly 15,600 employees,
more than 4,000 of whom hold professional or
research doctoral degrees. The NIH staff includes
intramural scientists, physicians, dentists, veterinarians,
nurses, and laboratory, administrative,
and support personnel, plus an ever-changing
array of research scientists in training.
The NIH Nobelists
The roster of those who have conducted NIH
research, or who have received NIH support over
the years includes the world’s most illustrious scientists
and physicians. Among them are 97 scientists
who have won Nobel prizes for achievements
as diverse as deciphering the genetic code and
identifying the causes of hepatitis.
Five Nobelists made their prize-winning discoveries
in NIH laboratories. You can learn more about
Nobelists who have received NIH support at
http://www.nih.gov/about/almanac/nobel/index.htm.
What Impact Has NIH Had
on the Health of the Nation?
NIH research has played a major role in making
possible the following achievements of the last
few decades:
• Mortality from heart disease, the number one
killer in the United States, dropped by 36 percent
between 1977 and 1999.
• Death rates from stroke decreased by 50 percent
during the same period.
• Improved treatments and detection methods
increased the relative five-year survival rate for
people with cancer to 60 percent.
• Paralysis from spinal cord injury is significantly
reduced by rapid treatment with high doses of a
steroid. Treatment given within the first eight
hours after injury increases the likelihood of
recovery in severely injured patients who have
lost sensation or mobility below the point of
injury.
• Long-term treatment with anticlotting medicines
cuts stroke risk by 80 percent from a common
heart condition known as atrial fibrillation.
• In schizophrenia, where patients suffer frightening
delusions and hallucinations, new medications
can reduce or eliminate these
symptoms in 80 percent of patients.
• Chances for survival increased for infants with
respiratory distress syndrome, an immaturity
of the lungs, due to development of a substance
to prevent the lungs from collapsing. In general,
life expectancy for a baby born today is almost
three decades longer than one born at the beginning
of the century.
• With effective medications and psychotherapy,
the 19 million Americans who suffer from
depression can now look forward to a better,
more productive future.
• Vaccines protect against infectious diseases that
once killed and disabled millions of children
and adults.
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