New NIH Awards Will Celebrate Columbus Quincentenary

AUTHOR: JEFFREY MERVIS, pg. 3. WASHINGTON--While any conceptual link between modern scientific investigation and Christopher Columbus's landing in the New World back in 1492 is tenuous, the National Institutes of Health nevertheless plans to mark the 500th anniversary of the Italian explorer's first visit to the Western hemisphere by giving awards named after him to leaders in biomedical research. This fall NIH will bestow Christopher Columbus Discovery Awards in Biomedical Research upon a dozen or so scientists who, in the words of its call for nominations, "have made discoveries that have contributed significantly to the alleviation of disease and disability." The competition is international, and covers work, either basic or clinical, in any biomedical field. Winners, who will be required to attend an award ceremony, will receive a medal, a monetary prize, travel expenses, and what NIH hopes will be international recognition for this one-time-only presentation. The prize is to be financed by private donations, the value hinging on how much is collected for it. NIH is the sole federal research agency offering Columbus prizes, according to the government's Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission, which sanctions such activities. Commission officials acknowledge that they don't quite understand the connection between Columbus and biomedical research. "The medical community seems to have taken hold of these themes," says Bob Miner, a program officer for the commission, which was created by Congress in 1984. "But I don't really know why. I suppose it has to do with the spirit of discovery, the joining of two worlds, that is symbolized both by his voyage and by medical research." One thing the NIH awards do have in common with their name-sake's voyage is the means by which they were accomplished--by taking an idea directly to the people with the clout to make it happen. Five hundred years ago, it was Columbus pleading with Queen Isabella. At NIH, it was an Italian delegation rubbing shoulders four years ago with top agency officials. A member of that delegation from Genoa, cancer researcher Luisa Massimo, took then-NIH director James Wyngaarden aside and proposed a collaborative effort to celebrate her countryman's most famous trip. Wyngaarden enlisted Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and, not coincidentally, a prominent figure in the Italian-American research community. The result was NIH's Christopher Columbus Medical Sciences Committee. The agency actually is now involved in five events that will mark Columbus's voyage, according to George Galasso, associate director for extramural research and chairman of the NIH committee. Two are scientific conferences--one next February in Bethesda, Md., on the aging process, the second in October in Genoa, Italy, on advances in biotechnology. In addition, the Smithsonian Institution next year will host an exhibit on the brain, funded by Italian pharmaceutical firm Fidia and now traveling through Europe. Italians are also financing what Galasso calls "a coffee-table-type book," due out by the end of the year. It will feature important discoveries in biomedicine during the past 500 years, with chapters written by prominent Italian and Italian-American scientists. It's the awards, however, that NIH officials hope will make the biggest splash. The key to success, they believe, is to have a blue-ribbon panel of outside experts pick outstanding scientists with impeccable claims to having made a lasting contribution to improving public health. And the key to that, they say, is getting enough good applications. "We don't have the reputation [of a Lasker Foundation Award or Nobel Prize], we don't have the megabucks, and it's a one-shot deal," says Jim Hill, deputy director of NIAID and chairman of the awards subcommittee. "I hope that we will have magnificent people nominated, but we have no idea what the response is going to be." Hill says that he hopes the winners will represent the rich diversity within biomedical research, including the range of disciplines involved, the different backgrounds of the researchers, and the varied settings in which they work. Although nominations were originally due to NIH by June 30, Hill says that he is willing to stretch that deadline to assure the best possible pool of nominees. For more information, contact Hill at NIH, c/o the Christopher Columbus Medical Sciences Committee, Building 31, Room 7A03, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Md. 20892; or, by telephone, at (301) 496-9118.

New NIH Awards Will Celebrate Columbus Quincentenary

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