Harm reduction research touted by Philip Morris, already a stretch, could run into more hurdles with a report in BMC Genomics that gene expression changes brought on by smoking persist years – decades – after quitting. Nature gives the sound bite version.
Archive for August, 2007
Biomedical Research Funding Flatlined
A news blip in Science passes along the cheery news from Research! America that non-industry private research funding levels have been flat since 2001 and that industry health research funding will likely dip in the years to come.
Specifically: “nonindustry private funding represented 2% of the $116 billion spent on U.S. health research in 2006 and has been “completely flat” since 2001, says Research!America policy analyst Stacie Propst. Spending by industry has risen slightly since NIH’s budget stalled at about $29 billion after 2004, but Propst predicts a dip because industry research funding typically follows federal patterns with a lag of a few years. The proportion of each U.S. health care dollar that now goes to research is 5.5 cents and falling, Propst adds.”
AAAS on Postdoc Training
Science includes a write-up of an AAAS survey of postdoc supervisors intended “to determine what factors contribute to a successful postdoctoral experience from the supervisors’ point of view.”
Apparently, no supervisors felt any discussion of scientific integrity, research misconduct, or ethical grey areas were essential to this success.
Instead, “The top 3 general responsibilities for supervising postdocs identified by survey participants were discussing research project and direction (96%), reviewing data analysis and interpretation of results (91%), and assisting with writing manuscripts and seminar preparation (84%). Fewer supervisors cited providing guidance for career planning (75%) and helping to write grants and assist with funding efforts (64%).”
Mandatory Daytime Naps
for successful skill learning, that is – per Nature Neuroscience. Korman et al. conclude: “We propose that daytime sleep facilitates both memory stability and the expression of delayed gains. Thus, the provision of a post-training nap should be considered for facilitating the learning of skills.”
AAMC Spotlights RCR
The Sept 2007 issue of Academic Medicine is devoted to topics related to responsible conduct of research training. One of the articles, “What Do Mentoring and Training in the Responsible Conduct of Research Have To Do with Scientists’ Misbehavior? Findings from a National Survey of NIH-Funded Scientists,” comes from Brian Martinson’s group, whose work is keenly interesting. Abstract below – I’m looking forward to studying these data in relation to their prior articles in the evenings ahead (yes, I have no life).
Purpose: The authors examine training in the responsible conduct of research and mentoring in relation to behaviors that may compromise the integrity of science.
Method: The analysis is based on data from the authors’ 2002 national survey of 4,160 early-career and 3,600 midcareer biomedical and social science researchers who received research support from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The authors used logistic regression analysis to examine associations between receipt of separate or integrated training in research ethics, mentoring related to ethics and in general, and eight categories of ethically problematic behavior. Analyses controlled for gender, type of doctoral degree, international degree, and disciplinary field.
Results: Responses were received from 1,479 early-career and 1,768 midcareer scientists, yielding adjusted response rates of 43% and 52%, respectively. Results for early-career researchers: Training in research ethics was positively associated with problematic behavior in the data category. Mentoring related to ethics and research, as well as personal mentoring, decreased the odds of researchers’ engaging in problematic behaviors, but mentoring on financial issues and professional survival increased these odds. Results for midcareer researchers: Combined separate and integrated training in research ethics was associated with decreased odds of problematic behavior in the categories of policy, use of funds, and cutting corners. Ethics mentoring was associated with lowered odds of problematic behavior in the policy category.
Conclusions: The effectiveness of training in obviating problematic behavior is called into question. Mentoring has the potential to influence behavior in ways that both increase and decrease the likelihood of problematic behaviors.
Getting Along with Others
Nature Bioentrepreneur (“from bench to boardroom”) has a IP-related piece entitled “Learning How to Get Along with Others” … the sort of thing we don’t seem to teach in kindergarten anymore since these tots need to start getting ready on day one for the school’s 2nd Grade standardized tests (wouldn’t want any of them left behind). Anyway, with statements such as “The importance of IP within academia is increasing, and although the reasons for this are complex, the primary factors are somehow related to money”, the content is not going to knock your socks off. Common sense guidance is given on talking through IP issues (& hopefully publication policies) during the planning stages and as work progresses … but no magic bullets on getting along, sadly.
Philip Morris USA Revenue “Only” $18.47 Billion
From the WSJ today: “Altria Group Inc. is likely to announce a spinoff of its Philip Morris International tobacco arm after a board meeting Wednesday. That would create a new company, unfettered by legal and public relations problems in the U.S., to blanket overseas markets aggressively.”
“Overseas growth [+15.9% in Asia, for example] contrasts with Philip Morris USA’s volume, which shrank 3.3% in the latest quarter from a year earlier. For all of 2006, Philip Morris International had revenue of $48.26 billion, compared with $18.47 billion at Philip Morris USA.”
This is $66.73 BILLION earned entirely and unambiguously from the sale of a known addictive and lethal product. Compare this with the fact that those of us who choose not to smoke – in the US alone – pay a $172 BILLION economic penalty each year ($75 billion in direct medical costs, $92 billion in lost productivity). Yet some academic medical centers feel no conflict of interest in accepting research awards and enthusiastic partnerships (also see page 8 or RTD excerpt) funded by the sale of said addictive and lethal and economically draining products. Roy Poses sums it up well: “Cloaking research meant to market more cigarettes in academic respectability could be very bad for health care.”
Indeed, as so clearly illustrated by the secret and unethical research services agreement between Virginia Commonwealth University and Philip Morris.
ORI Findings of Misconduct in Science
Notice is hereby given that ORI and the Assistant Secretary for Health have taken final action in the following case:
Based on the report of an inquiry into admitted fabrication of data conducted by the Duke University Medical Center and additional analysis conducted by ORI in its oversight review, the U.S. PHS found that Hiwot A. Woreta, former medical student, DUMC, engaged in research misconduct while supported by grant P30 DK034987.
Specifically, PHS found that Ms. Woreta engaged in research misconduct by fabricating data included in Figure 2 of her third year Medical School Thesis at DUMC. These data were also included in a poster presented during the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society symposium in May 2004.
Indentured Postdoctoral Service
Nature has an editorial reflecting on FASEB data on the career trajectories of young scientists. The Nature News piece does a tidy job of summarizing the salient points (too many biomedical PhDs, too few jobs in academia).
Graduate schools need armies of well-trained students and postdocs willing to sacrifice long hours in the lab to generate data for grant applications and IP licensing deals, not to mention carrying significant teaching loads in many cases.
The editorial notes: “the plight of the postdoc will probably change only if the issue of scientific training is addressed from the top, where it may be necessary to consider the possibility that too many scientists are being trained.”
Possibility?
And how about the possibility of postdocs being tempted to cut corners & engage in some degree of misconduct to obtain publishable results and thus improve their chance of securing one of those few assistant professor slots.
The concluding paragraph notes: “More effort is needed to ensure that recruitment interviews include realistic assessments of prospective students’ expectations and potential in the academic workplace.”
In other words, explain that they might face a lifelong career with a very modest salary as a grant-funded (i.e., insecure employment) super lab tech … and that industry is not necessarily the answer, as demonstrated in another Nature piece on rising scientist job cuts in the pharmaceutical industry. In a nutshell, one of my favorite demotivators.
Class of 2011 Frame of Reference
Just for giggles, a list of cultural-historical items likely never experienced by the freshman class of 2011, complements of Beloit College. The first one is a killer: “What Berlin wall?” Of course, many of the assistant professors I help with their grant applications can’t name the Fab Four (& often have no idea to whom I am referring). Sigh.
