Search Results for: nih

Replace Francis Collins as NIH Director

By Michael Eisen | Published: December 13, 2016

For decades the NIH has been the premier funding agency in the world, fueling the rise of the US as the undisputed powerhouse of global science. But in his eight years in charge of federal efforts to understand, diagnose and cure disease, current NIH Director Francis Collins has systematically undermined the effectiveness of the institution and overseen […]

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Exploring the relationship between gender and author order and composition in NIH-funded research

By Michael Eisen | Published: September 28, 2016

Last week there was a brief but interesting conversation on Twitter about the practice of “co-first” authors on scientific papers that led me to do some research on the relationship between author order and gender using data from the NIH’s Public Access Policy. I want to note at the outset that this is my first foray […]

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NIH Director Francis Collins’ ridiculous “We would have had an Ebola vaccine if the NIH were fully funded” meme

By Michael Eisen | Published: October 13, 2014

Almost as soon as the African Ebola epidemic hit the headlines, NIH Director Francis Collins was making the rounds arguing that we would have had an Ebola vaccine by now, if only Congress hadn’t slashed the NIH budget. Lest you think I’m taking his words out of context, here is what he said to a House Energy […]

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With its HeLa genome agreement, the NIH embraces a expansive definition of familial consent in genetics

By Michael Eisen | Published: August 7, 2013

I wrote before about the controversy involving the release earlier this year of a genome sequence of the HeLa cell line, which was taken without consent from Henrietta Lacks as she lay dying of ovarian cancer in 1950s Baltimore. Now, the NIH has announced an agreement with Lacks’ descendants to obtain their consent for access […]

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Restructuring the NIH and its grant programs to ensure stable careers in science

By Michael Eisen | Published: January 28, 2013

It is an amazing time to do science, but an incredibly difficult time to be a scientist. There is so much cool stuff going on. Everywhere I go – my lab, seminar visits, meetings, Twitter – there are biologists young and old are bursting with ideas, eager to take advantage of powerful new ways to […]

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Is the NIH a cult?

By Michael Eisen | Published: November 29, 2012

As many of you know, I spent a fair amount of time last month engaged in debates about the wisdom of California’s Proposition 37, which would have mandated the labeling of genetically modified foods. While many of these discussions were civil, one particularly energetic fellow accuse me of having been brainwashed by the “cult of […]

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The destructive myopia of the NIH study on grant funding and race

By Michael Eisen | Published: August 25, 2011

Last week Science published a paper describing the results of an NIH-sponsored investigation into the impact of a scientist’s race on the probability of that their grants will be funded. The findings were striking: After controlling for the applicant’s educational background, country of origin, training, previous research awards, publication record, and employer characteristics, we find […]

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NIH public access policy made “permanent”

By Michael Eisen | Published: March 13, 2009

The consolidated appropriations bill passed by Congress and signed into law on Wednesday has a provision that makes the NIH public access policy permanent: [Via THOMAS] Sec. 217. The Director of the National Institutes of Health (`NIH’) shall require in the current fiscal year and thereafter that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or […]

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How should the NIH spend its stimulus money?

By Michael Eisen | Published: February 11, 2009

Steve Quake has an interesting post on Olivia Judson’s blog (Quake is a guest columnist while she is on sabbatical) about what life is like for a scientist at a modern research university. The interesting stuff is at the end, when he talks about how labs are funded. It’s a particularly important time to think about […]

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Conyers reintroduces bill to kill NIH Public Access Policy

By Michael Eisen | Published: February 6, 2009

John Conyers (D-MI) has reintroduced his publisher-backed “Fair Copyright Act”  which would effectively end the NIH Public Access Policy by eliminating the government’s right to impose conditions on grants that would give the government the right to distribute works arising from federally funded research. As many have pointed out, the whole premise of the bill […]

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