Dr. Collins said now that the technology exists to see which “genes are on, which genes are off,” lupus researchers have the opportunity to look at the kidneys in ways barely envisioned when his career began. And RA experts can similarly glean insights into the synovium.
“This is a window into what’s going on in the immune system of a kind of precision that has not previously been possible,” he said. “But that means we are inventing and improving the technology day by day as we go along.”
That takes money. More specifically, money the NIH hasn’t had in recent years. Dr. Collins said that over the past 12 years, the NIH has lost 22% of its purchasing power for biomedical research. And although the budget approved in November by Congress and President Obama calls for an increase in NIH funding, the battle for funding never ends, he added.
Although the head of NIH can’t lobby Congress—he has to wait to be invited to testify before lawmakers—he noted that the restriction applies only to him. He exhorted lupus professionals and other physicians to make known their needs for resources, funding and support.
“We all have to figure out how we can use our voices to raise the consciousness of the decision makers about just how important this is,” Dr. Collins said. “All of us should … get over our shyness or our sense of ‘it’s not really appropriate’ and argue positively for what we are about in terms of biomedical research. This is a unique moment in history, whether it’s lupus that you care about or whatever disease. We could be going faster.”
Richard Quinn is a freelance writer in New Jersey.
Excitement & Enthusiasm Drive Progress
Kathleen Sullivan, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, was duly impressed last month by having National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, as the keynote speaker at Forum for Discovery: The 15th Annual Scientific Conference here.
She called him an icon. And a visionary.
Then she paused and looked around a room full of posters and their presenters on the eighth floor of the famed Time-Life Building in Midtown Manhattan.
“But for me, actually, it’s this concentration of people who love working on lupus and they’re all enthusiastic and they’re all doing interesting and novel things,” Dr. Sullivan said. “For me, the big excitement is being around a lot of other people who are fascinated by lupus and think they can make a difference.”