Nutrition Research and the NIH Roadmap

Elizabeth Wilder, Ph.D.

Acting Associate Director

Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives, Office of the Director, NIH

April 5, 2008American Society for Nutrition

Where does Nutrition Fit Within the NIH Roadmap?

What is the Roadmap?

What types of programs constitute the Roadmap?

How does the Roadmap address Nutrition?

How can Nutrition researchers make best use of the NIH Common Fund?

April 5, 2008American Society for Nutrition

What is the NIH Roadmap?

The NIH Roadmap is a series of cross-cutting programs designed to

foster the development of transformative solutions to grand challenges in health

research.

It is funded via the NIH Common Fund.The CF only funds Roadmap programs.

April 5, 2008American Society for Nutrition

NIH and the Future of Medicine:Roadmap for Medical Research

Roadmap1.7%

Non-Roadmap98.3%

FY2007 NIH Budget = $28.9 B Developed to increase

synergy across NIH and to incubate new ideas

Not a single initiative but 865 new awards

– 716 investigators

– 193 Institutions in USA

– 41 states

–Award rate1 FY04 16.7% FY05 18.2% FY06 19.5% FY07 9.2%

1 Award Rate differs from Success Rate for it includes all research grant mechanisms of support, incl. training awards

April 5, 2008American Society for Nutrition

Transforming Medicine: the NIH Roadmap

The NIH Roadmap is designed to foster the development of transformative solutions to grand challenges in health research

• Addressing fundamental knowledge gaps

• Providing infrastructure that supports basic, clinical and translational research across the spectrum of NIH interests

• Supporting investigators in new ways that encourage innovation, interdisciplinarity, and partnership

April 5, 2008American Society for Nutrition

Collaboration at the NIH: Distinguishing Features of Roadmap Programs

Although the NIH Institutes and Centers have distinct missions, many issues/scientific interests span IC boundaries, and the ICs regularly collaborate on these topics.

Special criteria exist for Roadmap programs. Potential New Roadmap initiatives must:• Be expected to transform the way research is conducted• Promote and advance the individual missions of NIH ICs to

benefit health • Require participation from NIH as a whole and/or address an

area(s) of science that does not clearly fall within the mission of any one IC or OD program office

• Have a public health benefit from the research results being in the public domain

April 5, 2008American Society for Nutrition

How does the Roadmap address Nutrition?

The NIH Roadmap consists of 13 integrated programs, each designed to address a grand challenge in health research.

9 of the programs have made awards; 5 of these support nutrition or obesity research

3/4 of the new programs are expected to be of especially high interest to the Nutrition Research Community

April 5, 2008

Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs)

Encourage the development of new methods and approaches to clinical and translational research

Improve training and mentoring to ensure that new investigators can navigate the increasingly complex research system

Design new and improved clinical research informatics tools

Assemble interdisciplinary teams that cover the complete spectrum of medical research

Forge new partnerships with private and public health care organization

April 5, 2008

Interdisciplinary Research

Challenge: Cultural and logistical barriers to Interdisciplinary approaches and teamwork within the Research Community

Roadmap Approach:

Consortia: bridging dept boundaries w/in

academic institutions

Training: melding disciplines

Innovative Tools to bridge

behavioral/social sciences and biology

NIH Changes: Recognition ofMultiple PIs; New review

Practices for IR; new Ways to manage awards

April 5, 2008

Interdisciplinary Research Consortia

Taskforce for Obesity Research at Southwestern (TORS) - Harnesses expertise from highly diverse disciplines, with a goal of defining the behavioral, metabolic, genetic and molecular mechanisms contributing to obesity and the metabolic syndrome. • Effect of Dietary Macronutrient Composition and Weight Loss on

Liver Substrate Metabolism and Liver Fat Content in Humans• Genetic Susceptibility to Adverse Metabolic Consequences of

Obesity• Fatty Acid Synthesis in Specific Hypothalamic Neurons: Control

of Appetite and Energy Homeostasis• Interdisciplinary Research Training Program

April 5, 2008

IR ConsortiaInterdisciplinary Research Consortium on Stress, Self-Control, and Addiction - Yale

April 5, 2008

New in FY08: Human Microbiome Project

What microbes live in humans? How do they contribute to health? To disease? Might the microbiota be manipulated to improve health?

• The human body contains ten times as many microbial cells—bacteria and other micro-organisms—as it does human cells. These microbes, which are found in locations throughout the body, are thought to have a profound influence on many biological processes, including development, immunity, and nutrition. However, technical difficulties in isolating and studying many of these organisms have limited our ability to fully understand the effects of the microbiome on human health and disease.

April 5, 2008

The goal of the Human Microbiome Project is

to characterize the microbial content of

sites in the human body and examine whether

changes in the microbiome can be related to disease.

April 5, 2008

The Human Microbiome Project

The goals of this Program are:• develop needed novel technology and

informatics

• support demonstration projects that address whether changes in the microbiome can be related to disease.

• provide reference data sets

April 5, 2008

Epigenomics: the Next Step in Understanding the Human Genome

April 5, 2008

Questions

How plastic/stable is the epigenome of a given cell type?

What environmental/nutritional factors alter the epigenome and under what conditions?

What are the phenotypic consequences of these changes? What diseases/conditions result?

Might it be possible to reverse or prevent detrimental epigenomic changes?

April 5, 2008

The Roadmap Epigenomics Program

The Roadmap Epigenomics Program will: • Develop comprehensive epigenome maps from many

cell types; • Develop standardized platforms, procedures, and

reagents for epigenomics research• Support discovery of novel epigenomic marks• Conduct demonstration projects to evaluate how

epigenomes change in disease, with age, or following environmental exposures;

• Develop new technologies for single cell epigenomic analysis and in vivo imaging of epigenetic activity; and

• Create a public data resource to accelerate the application of epigenomics approaches.

April 5, 2008

Director’s New Innovator Award

Award supports New investigators who have not yet obtained a traditional NIH R01 grant

Goal: to support highly innovative research projects with potential for exceptionally great impact on biomedical or behavioral science

Each grant is for five years and up to a total of $1.5 million in direct costs

NIH made 29 New Innovators awards in September 2007

April 5, 2008

New Innovator in Nutrition Research

Dr. Kjersti Aagaard-Tillery, Baylor

“Characterization of the Fetal Primate Epigenome and Metabolome”

The novel innovation and significance resides within the potential to provide 1) an expanded understanding of the mechanism through which a maternal high fat diet reprograms primate gene expression, and 2) a simple intervention (essential nutrient supplementation with neither diet nor behavioral modification) with tremendous potential impact given the current obesity epidemic and the lack of efficacious therapeutics.

April 5, 2008

The “toxic environment”

April 5, 2008

Why do people behave the way theydo when they know better?

What strategies might be most successful in effecting

behavior change?

Health and Behavior

April 5, 2008

Science of Behavior Change

Three year Pilot Program What is the biology underlying motivation and

changes in motivation? What are current practices for incenting people

to change behaviors? Which are most effective? What new strategies may be suggested from

prior efforts and from basic neuroscience? How can we test these strategies most

effectively?

April 5, 2008

Nutrition Research Looking Forward

How can Nutrition Researchers continue to make good use of the NIH Common Fund?• Maintain fluid communication with the NIH at multiple

levels– Know your Program Directors, talk to them– Let NIH Leadership know of fundamental barriers to your

research– Talk to OPASI

Informal communication is always welcome Requests for Input – annually (to be launched shortly)

– Continue to take advantage of existing initiatives Apply for funding Take advantage of resources, data, new technologies