Annual report : 2000 / Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Date:
2000
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Annual report : 2000 / Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Year: 1998 Organization BWF recognizes that the biomedical research land- scape is changing. As a foundation, we want not only to be aware of these changes, but also to determine how ‘Amount we can leverage our support to effect change when and (in millions) where it is needed. We must set our agenda in a way that complements, rather than duplicates, what other organizations, including the federal government, are doing. This point was amplified by the particularly pre- scient remarks of the featured speaker at our building 27.0 more knowledge, there is a grave danger in its increasing specialization. Moreover, there is a natural feedback loop DAT es ; in our scientific establishment. Students look at their mentors to see what kind of science is valued, go out and TOTAL the same kind of research. We need to ask what kind $676.0 of science we value? We need a kind of science that addresses human needs.” We are addressing the changing needs in training the next generation of biomedical scientists. at our building dedication announced nearly $3 million in awards for research in the rapidly emerging field of functional genomics, which defines the functions of genes and shows how genes interact within the context of the whole organism. These Innovation Awards in Functional Genomics are intended to help scientists put the vast quantity of gene sequence information being generated in the world’s laboratories to work in preventing and treating disease. We made awards to 11 scientists or teams of scientists in the United States and Canada for projects that either use computers to analyze genetic information or use animal models to link genomic information to physical or behavioral traits. Our hope is to encourage truly novel approaches that might not have been funded through traditional means but that have the potential for high impact. (See page 6 for a description of the research being conducted by one of these awardees, Sudhir Kumar, Ph.D.) Although these special commemorative awards will not be offered again, BWF recognizes that application of genomic data will soon permeate science, and proposals that incorporate genomic approaches will be encouraged in our ongoing award programs. We also are playing a key role in addressing the changing needs in training the next generation of biomedical scientists. In February 2000, the American Cancer Society, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute convened a meeting on the vital role that private funders can play in ensuring that appropriate and adequate programs are available for training both basic biomedical scientists and clinical scientists. Representatives from government, academia, and nongovernmental funding agencies had the opportunity to hear presentations, discuss programs and plans of public and private funders, and consider goals for the future. Proceedings of the meeting are available on BWF’s Web site (www.bwfund.org/special_reports.htm). Participants concluded that the private sector is uniquely positioned to develop and support a variety of new approaches to training both basic and clinical researchers, and that private funders can facilitate opening doors to new or emerging areas of research more easily than can public agencies. With issues such as these as a backdrop, BWF proceeded with what would be a yearlong exam- ination of where we have been and where we should be going in the future. In particular, we noted that the complete sequencing of the human genome (and the genomes of several model animals and human pathogens) presents research scientists with an incredibly powerful tool for discovery. Yet, to find useful information within this tremendous resource will require a shift in training that academic institutions must quickly realign themselves to handle. Mining the human genome will require not only a foundation in biology, but also fundamental skills in computational methods, chemistry, mathematics, and materials and physical sciences. Similarly, scientists from the physical sciences can advance such fields as neuroscience, systems biology, and structural biology by approaching the research in unusual and innovative ways. | |
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