STRATEGIC PLAN - ASPE - U.S. Department of Health and Human ...

CHAPTER 5: Scientific Research and Developmentto disseminate these data, and as a result, the scientificcommunity will have access to a Web-based, userfriendlyresource that integrates neuroanatomical andclinical/behavioral data to examine brain-behaviorrelationships and relationships between physicalmaturation and brain development.Cancer ResearchNIH investment in cancer research is helping tomake a real difference. In the United States, deathrates from all cancers combined dropped 1.1 percentper year from 1991 to 2001. xxxviii Yet cancer remainsa major public health problem with more than 1million Americans per year diagnosed with some formof cancer. Despite significant progress, the cancerchallenge remains formidable, and NIH investmentin basic cancer research remains critical. NIH willcontinue to support a broad range of basic researchto expand the understanding of cancer. Throughthe Cancer Genome Atlas Project, NIH will expandthe capacity of the cancer community to utilizeinformation on cancer genes. NIH also will focus on agrowing area of interest—understanding the reactionof the body’s immune system to a developing tumor—because chronic inflammatory immune responses areknown to exacerbate certain cancers.AsthmaNIH supports a comprehensive asthma programto develop new approaches to prevent, treat, andcontrol asthma. Asthma exacerbations cause manyof the negative effects of asthma, and management ofasthma exacerbations accounts for a large proportionof the estimated annual cost to the Nation’s economy.In contrast to the understanding of the origins ofasthma, little is known about the processes that occurduring an acute episode; how worsening attacksare resolved; the effect of attacks on future severityand frequency; and the long-term effects on lungphysiology, function, and disease progression. Inorder to develop new interventions to prevent andhelp resolve acute or worsening asthma episodes,NIH initiated a set of basic, clinical, and translationalstudies to determine the molecular, cellular, andgenetic causes of asthma exacerbations. The longtermgoal is to identify and characterize two molecularpathways of potential clinical significance that mayserve as a basis for discovering new medications forpreventing and treating the progression of this disease.The studies will address diverse areas including therole of environmental triggers in enhancing airwayhyperresponsiveness; the relationship of environmentalfactors to frequency and severity of asthma attacks;specific effects of initiating events on lung physiologyand inflammation; genetic approaches to individualsusceptibility for worsening attacks; and the rolespecific immune and lung cells play in asthma diseaseclassification, chemistry, and physiology.Pandemic InfluenzaHHS is working intensely against influenza. The centerof this work is the development of multiple vaccinesagainst influenza virus. At the level of basic science,however, NIH is collaborating with numerous publicand private partners on an influenza sequencingproject. This project will determine the complete geneticsequences of thousands of influenza virus strains,providing the scientific community with data vital todevelopment of new vaccines, therapies, and diagnostics.Antimicrobial ResistanceMicrobes once easily controlled by antimicrobialdrugs are causing infections that no longer respondto treatment with these drugs. In addition, new,serious, and unforeseen infectious disease threatshave emerged, including those posed by agentsof bioterrorism. Because the existing repertoireof antimicrobial medications may not provide aneffective defense against newly emerging and resistantorganisms and bioterrorism agents in the future,there is a need to develop new treatments that may beeffective against a range of pathogens. NIH is workingto develop a universal antibiotic, a drug effective againsta wide spectrum of infectious diseases, to help addressthese challenges. NIH also is expanding its capacityfor medicinal and combinatorial chemistry, library anddatabase resources, and screening assays for use inidentifying novel antimicrobial drugs.HHS Strategic Plan FY 2007-2012119