Scientists who use monkeys, mice and dogs for research on human diseases fear that the US government is restructuring the massive National Institutes of Health in a way that could slash their funding.
As the NIH forges ahead with a plan to speed up the way scientific discoveries are transformed into treatments and cures, animal researchers say they are being overlooked in the rush to create a new institute devoted to something they already do.
And some are concerned that the changes could incur large startup costs at a time when Congress is aiming to pare back science budgets.
The NIH, which funnels $31 per year into medical research, is considering an advisory panel recommendation to create a new centre for turning lab advances into practical health solutions for the public, also known as translational medicine.
The proposed National Centre for Advancing Translational Research would include a new initiative from President Barack Obama’s health care reform plan, the Cures Acceleration Network, as well as other programmes devoted to rare diseases and special award grants.
But it leaves out about half of a $1.3-billion programme that funds the nation’s eight primate centres and a series of other research programmes, known as the National Centre for Research Resources.
According to NIH guidelines, the creation of a new centre means an existing one will have to be cut.
Some scientists are worried the changes could affect as many as 30,000 researchers who rely on about $500 million in funding for things like salaries, building research facilities, veterinarian training and key resources like fruit flies, worms, mutant mice and rats that are pooled among many.
Mark Lively, a scientist at Wake Forest University in North Carolina who is a member of the NCRR advisory board, said most people agree with the NIH’s goal of speeding discoveries to patients.