Are we funding enough basic research to support future research?

NHLBI directed research should be abandoned and switched to investigator initiated research. I respectfully suggest read the following assay by Brown and Goldstein, Science 2012; 338: 1033-1034

The best way to run the science sponsored by the NIH (or NHLBI) is not to guide it (analogy to running science from ivory tower) but let the investigators decide what is worth pursuing. Get rid of NHLBI-directed research initiative... more »

Over the last thirty years, our fundamental understanding of the genetics and pathogenesis of congenital heart disease has lagged the tremendous advances in the surgical and clinical care of infants with this group of disorders. We need to close this gap with investigation into the genetic basis of congenital heart malformations to develop new models of disease. The goall is translate an improved molecular genetic and... more »

There is a need for more enhanced pain research in order to help improve sickle cell disease patient outcomes and quality of life.

The big database of -omics and noncoding RNAs provide a valuable search engine to establish the link of various disease conditions with pathways and molecules. During recent year, data mining of available biomedical data and information has merged for target discovery and mechanism identification. However, current database mining research remains limited and largely hypothetical. Comprehensive research using the combinatory... more »

There is a need to address chronic heart failure (HF) through improved identification of patients at risk for HF and of patients with pathological ventricular remodeling who have minimal evidence of clinical HF, and more focused and individualized pharmacologic and lifestyle treatments and monitoring of patients with HF risk. Approaches would include big data collection, omics, statistical modeling, and focused clinical... more »

There is an urgent need to understand the mechanisms underlying diabetes-induced congenital heart defects (CHDs) through basic science research and biomarker identification in human maternal circulation. Majority of the current research in CHDs is related to genetic analyses; however, environmental factors contribute to the majority of human CHDs, but the underlying mechanism is unknown. There is 60 million worldwide... more »

There is a need to improve identification and surveillance of persons at risk for heart failure and pathological ventricular remodeling prior to development of clinically overt heart failure.

What types of newer patient-centered quality of life assessment tools can be employed in heart, lung, blood and sleep studies so that they can be validated and refined to improve our measurement of quality of life outcomes in populations of interest to NHLBI?

Determining the dietary patterns and dietary constituents that are most effective in preventing cardiovascular disease events. In addition to the obvious challenge of limited resources, the challenge is overcoming the tension between desire for comparable data produced from low-cost tools and need for higher quality data. Many studies continue using low-cost self-reported diet assessment instruments that produce data... more »

Can we identify approaches to improve potency and/or safety of transfusable RBCs?

42 day pre-transfusion storage of RBCs maximizes utilization, while minimizing waste. However, RBCs undergo changes during collection, manipulation and storage that may reduce their potency or safety. Progress in understanding markers that predict transfusion success at the time of collection and with storage remains slow. New technologies... more »

Strategies and infrastructure to support clinical trials in rare diseases must go further in the development of critical partnerships with advocacy organizations. These partnerships must be formalized and based on models that help to accelerate the research.

A way for clinical trial investigators to submit ONE application with ONE review and ONE funding decision, and the application would ask for funding from multiple funders (e.g. NHLBI and another IC, NHLBI and PCORI, NHLBI and AHA, NHLBI and CIHR, NHLBI and MRC).

The cap on R01 research grants at $500,000 per year has not changed in over 20 years. In the current fiscal crisis for research it has become an immovable block to submitting intervention studies (randomized clinical trials on treatment). Routine advice from NIH staff is to not even try for a larger study. The cap applies to every year, so one can design a trial that costs less than $2.5 million but exceeds $500,000 in... more »

What HIV/AIDS-related basic research can NHLBI support in the next 5-10 years to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of HIV-related heart, lung, and/or blood (HLB) diseases alone and in the context of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to improve heart, lung, and blood health outcomes in HIV infections as well as the fundamental mechanisms of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in potential elimination or eradication... more »