2004 budget due Monday, but 2003 spending bills still far apart with more delays likely.

Leading candidate for second-in-command post is a policy expert and relative newcomer.

US official admits most approved lines useless for now, supports proposed UK stem cell bank.

Courtesy of CDC/Larry Stauffer HIGH-PRIORITY KILLERS: NIH welcomes proposals to study vaccines and treatments for these and other pathogens. Memo to life scientists who want to take advantage of new research funding for bioterrorism and biodefense: Submit your federal grant applications now, even though the US government's fiscal year 2003 budget is still up in the air. "Investigators should not hesitate to put in applications for grants or respond to RFPs [Request for Proposals] and con

Courtesy of Tom Hlavaty  CORN ROOTWORM: Diabrotica virgitera virgitera eats its' way into an interantional agroterrorism flap. The former director of Yugoslavia's plant inspection service has accused the United States of agroterrorism and economic sabotage, saying the US government deliberately infested Yugoslav farmland with crop-destroying insects. US officials, anxious to keep the bizarre allegations quiet, have called upon two top scientists to help debunk the accusations. One scient

Congress expected to revive anti-cloning legislation in light of clone-baby claims.

Researchers agree on need for more infrastructure but not at cost of core programs.

Image: Erica P. Johnson The National Institutes of Health has launched a new tracking system to streamline the licensing of discoveries. Officials hope the new system will improve the technology transfer process, allowing promising biomedical discoveries to be commercialized and brought to the public benefit more quickly. In October, the NIH activated TechTracS, a system to monitor technology transfers from intramural research programs. TechTracS uses computer database tools to help NIH offic

Funds will flow soon, say research agencies at 2003 biodefense funding conference.

Animal welfare activists, smarting from a defeat in Congress, plan to campaign across the United States to convince state legislators that laboratory rats, mice, and birds used in biomedical research require greater protection than afforded by federal law. Most major US research organizations, however, maintain that the 15 to 20 million animals used in labs--about 95% in biomedical research--are adequately protected under existing public and private regulations. More federal oversight, they sa

Science policy specialists watching for effects of change in control of Congress

Review finds US govt research institutions generating revenues but reporting is sluggish.