NIH Roadmap for Medical Research

Abstract The Persian Gulf War of 1990 to 1991 involved the deployment of nearly 700,000 American troops to the Middle East. Deployment-related exposures to toxic substances such as pesticides, nerve agents, pyridostigmine bromide (PB), smoke from burning oil wells, and petrochemicals may have contributed to medical illness in as many as 250,000 of those American troops. The cluster of chronic symptoms, now referred to as Gulf War Illness (GWI), has been studied by many researchers over the past two decades. Although over $500 million has been spent on GWI research, to date, no cures or condition-specific treatments have been discovered, and the exact pathophysiology remains elusive. Using the 2007 National Institute of Health (NIH) Roadmap for Medical Research model as a reference framework, we reviewed studies of interventions involving GWI patients to assess the progress of treatment-related GWI research. All GWI clinical trial studies reviewed involved investigations of existing interventions that have shown efficacy in other diseases with analogous symptoms. After reviewing the published and ongoing registered clinical trials for cognitive-behavioral therapy, exercise therapy, acupuncture, coenzyme Q10, mifepristone, and carnosine in GWI patients, we identified only four treatments (cognitive-behavioral therapy, exercise therapy, CoQ10, and mifepristone) that have progressed beyond a phase II trial. We conclude that progress in the scientific study of therapies for GWI has not followed the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research model. Establishment of a standard case definition, prioritized GWI research funding for the characterization of the pathophysiology of the condition, and rapid replication and adaptation of early phase, single site clinical trials could substantially advance research progress and treatment discovery for this condition.

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NIH Roadmap for Medical Research

Neurosurgery ◽

10.1227/01.neu.0000309594.38972.61 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 54 (1) ◽

pp. NA-NA

Author(s):

CHARLES LIU

Keyword(s):

Medical Research ◽

Nih Roadmap

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Application of Scanning Electron Microscopy to Medical Research

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100061963 ◽

1969 ◽

Vol 27 ◽

pp. 12-13

Author(s):

J. D. Hutchison

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Electron Microscope ◽

Medical Research ◽

Prosthetic Heart Valve ◽

School Of Medicine ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Definition Of ◽

Mechanism Of Failure ◽

The Brain ◽

Scanning Electron

When the transmission electron microscope was commercially introduced a few years ago, it was heralded as one of the most significant aids to medical research of the century. It continues to occupy that niche; however, the scanning electron microscope is gaining rapidly in relative importance as it fills the gap between conventional optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.IBM Boulder is conducting three major programs in cooperation with the Colorado School of Medicine. These are the study of the mechanism of failure of the prosthetic heart valve, the study of the ultrastructure of lung tissue, and the definition of the function of the cilia of the ventricular ependyma of the brain.

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Clinical Science in the 1990s

Clinical Science ◽

10.1042/cs0780001 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 78 (1) ◽

pp. 1-1

Author(s):

M. J. Brown

Keyword(s):

Medical Research ◽

Review Process ◽

Molecular Level ◽

Short Interval ◽

Clinical Science ◽

Molecular Medicine ◽

Mutual Benefit ◽

Real Progress ◽

General Journal

From this issue, Clinical Science will increase its page numbers from an average of 112 to 128 per monthly issue. This welcome change — equivalent to at least two manuscripts — has been ‘forced’ on us by the increasing pressure on space; this has led to an undesirable increase in the delay between acceptance and publication, and to a fall in the proportion of submitted manuscripts we have been able to accept. The change in page numbers will instead permit us now to return to our exceptionally short interval between acceptance and publication of 3–4 months; and at the same time we shall be able not only to accept (as now) those papers requiring little or no revision, but also to offer hope to some of those papers which have raised our interest but come to grief in review because of a major but remediable problem. Our view, doubtless unoriginal, has been that the review process, which is unusually thorough for Clinical Science, involving a specialist editor and two external referees, is most constructive when it helps the evolution of a good paper from an interesting piece of research. Traditionally, the papers in Clinical Science have represented some areas of research more than others. However, this has reflected entirely the pattern of papers submitted to us, rather than any selective interest of the Editorial Board, which numbers up to 35 scientists covering most areas of medical research. Arguably, after the explosion during the last decade of specialist journals, the general journal can look forward to a renaissance in the 1990s, as scientists in apparently different specialities discover that they are interested in the same substances, asking similar questions and developing techniques of mutual benefit to answer these questions. This situation arises from the trend, even among clinical scientists, to recognize the power of research based at the cellular and molecular level to achieve real progress, and at this level the concept of organ-based specialism breaks down. It is perhaps ironic that this journal, for a short while at the end of the 1970s, adopted — and then discarded — the name of Clinical Science and Molecular Medicine, since this title perfectly represents the direction in which clinical science, and therefore Clinical Science, is now progressing.

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