Word: nih
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...test tube. But if the results withstand the scrutiny of further testing, the researchers are convinced that their experiment will provide new insights into the workings of the genes. Even more important, it may offer effective means of correcting defects in the human body. Working toward that goal, the NIH scientists disclosed at week's end that they are already attempting the same kind of genetic transplant with a laboratory animal...
...NIH team became interested in the condition when baffled private physicians began referring individual patients to neurologists. The Government scientists studied 35 of the 3,000 Americans known to suffer from idiopathic hypogeusia. The doctors confirmed the symptoms by placing drops of sour, sweet, salt and bitter solutions on the subjects' tongues and holding solutions smelling like onions or burned rubber under their noses. The NIH researchers were puzzled as to the cause of the condition but decided that it does not appear to be psychosomatic. At least half of the patients developed their symptoms following influenza-like illnesses...
...reasons were managerial, not medical. Administration officials feared that creation of the superagency would trigger demands for similar organiza tions to fight heart disease and other illnesses. That in turn might lead to the ultimate dismemberment of the NIH, which conducts a wide variety of medical and training programs. They also worried that the NASA-type agency proposed by Kennedy would rapidly develop its own constituency on Capitol Hill, where few Congressmen would publicly oppose rising expenditures aimed at curing cancer...
Many scientists shared the Administration's reservations. James Shannon, a director of the NIH from 1955 to 1968, argued that biomedical research could no longer be judiciously balanced if the attack on one specific problem was assigned to a special authority. Philip Lee, chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, warned that "a separate cancer agency would immediately create competition for funds and scientific talent...
...result of this conflict was a compromise. Kennedy agreed to the creation of a new, ambitiously named Conquest of Cancer Agency within NIH, yet administratively independent. The agency's director would be appointed by the President and responsible to him. Its budget requests would bypass NIH and go directly to the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Despite reservations, the Administration accepted Kennedy's proposal. The compromise bill will be reported out of the Senate Labor and Welfare Committee this week...