When Paul Kincade is officially introduced as the new president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) today (July 8), he'll face two tough issues right from the start: recent damning conflict-of-interest issues at the NIH and an increasingly uphill NIH budget battle.
Kincade, head of the immunobiology and cancer research program at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, served as president of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) and chair of the FASEB science policy committee from 2002 to 2003. He studies the maturation and development of B cells.
As usual, NIH budget concerns will be a high priority for the new president. According to Kincade and his FASEB colleagues, if President Bush's requested 2.6% NIH budget increase remains untouched by Congress, the NIH will be able to fund 640 fewer new grants next year than they did this year, and some existing grants may have...