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In Support

Francis Collins appeared before Congress yesterday to advocate for the proposed fiscal year 2011 budget for the National Institutes of Health, notes Writedit at Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship. The 2011 budget proposed by President Barack Obama includes $32 billion for NIH and Collins says that those funds would help researchers conduct biomedical research. "Science is not a 100-yard dash. It is a marathon — a marathon run by a relay team that includes researchers, patients, industry experts, lawmakers, and the public," Collins said to the House subcommittee. Writedit adds that most of Collins' remarks "were of the fluffy, feel-good variety," but that he closed with some interesting points — namely that biomedical research helps power the US economy. Among the statistics Collins quoted were that, in 2007, an average NIH grant supported seven high-tech jobs, that "between 1982 and 2006, one-third of all drugs and nearly 60 percent of promising new molecular entities approved by the FDA cited either an NIH-funded publication or an NIH patent, and that research funded by NIH has led to gains in US life expectancy.

The Scan

Positive Framing of Genetic Studies Can Spark Mistrust Among Underrepresented Groups

Researchers in Human Genetics and Genomics Advances report that how researchers describe genomic studies may alienate potential participants.

Small Study of Gene Editing to Treat Sickle Cell Disease

In a Novartis-sponsored study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that a CRISPR-Cas9-based treatment targeting promoters of genes encoding fetal hemoglobin could reduce disease symptoms.

Gut Microbiome Changes Appear in Infants Before They Develop Eczema, Study Finds

Researchers report in mSystems that infants experienced an enrichment in Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Finegoldia and a depletion of Bacteroides before developing eczema.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment Specificity Enhanced With Stem Cell Editing

A study in Nature suggests epitope editing in donor stem cells prior to bone marrow transplants can stave off toxicity when targeting acute myeloid leukemia with immunotherapy.