From research on stem cells and DNA sequencing to experiments with fruit flies and surveys of human behavior, projects funded by the National Institutes of Health aim to make Americans healthier. A new analysis finds that NIH-funded research also fuels the kinds of innovations that drive the U.S. economy.

Between 1990 and 2012, close to 1 in 10 projects made possible by an NIH grant resulted in a patent, usually for a university or a hospital.

The indirect effects were far greater: Close to 1 in 3 NIH research grants generated work that was cited in applications for commercial patents.

Over roughly two decades, 81,462 patents filed by companies and individuals cited at least one NIH-sponsored research project in their applications. Some 1,351 of those patents were for drugs that would go on to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, undergirds a point repeated frequently since the Trump administration unveiled a budget plan that proposed cutting the NIH budget by 20% in 2018: that research funded by taxpayer dollars not only improves lives and forestalls death, it creates jobs which the president has long asserted is his highest priority.

It is an argument often made in support of such scientific undertakings as space exploration, and sometimes for defense spending. But when it comes to biomedical research, public spending is frequently dismissed as a way to sustain university professors or seek esoteric answers to the mysteries of life.

It shouldnt be, said Pierre Azoulay, a professor of technological innovation at MIT and coauthor of the new analysis.

NIH public funding expenditures have large effects on the patenting output of the private sector, Azoulay said. These results should give a lot of pause to those who think these cuts are going to have no effect.

Ashley J. Stevens, a biotechnology researcher who is president of Focus IP Group in Winchester, Mass., said the new study clearly ... supports the premise that increased investment in the NIH leads directly to improved public health.

It also makes President Trumps proposal to cut the NIH budget by $1.6 billion this year and $6 billion next year to fund a border wall and increased military spending incompatible with his America first objectives, added Stevens, who was not involved in the study.

More than 80% of the NIH budget is parceled out to researchers across the country and around the world. Each year, NIHs 21 institutes award close to 50,000 competitive grants to investigators at more than 2,500 universities, independent labs and private companies. The University of California, for instance, received nearly $1.9 billion in total NIH funding last year.

Led by Harvard Business School entrepreneurship professor Danielle Li, the new research scoured 1,310,700 patent applications submitted between 1980 and 2012 in the life sciences, a category that includes drugs, medical devices and related technologies. In the footnotes, citations and supporting data, the study authors looked for references to any of the 365,380 grants the NIH funded between 1980 and 2007, as well as to research articles generated by those grants.

To capture the unappreciated indirect spillovers of knowledge that result from NIH-funded work, the authors focused especially on 232,276 private-sector patents in the life sciences.

Li, Azoulay and Bhaven Sampat, a health policy professor at Columbia University, found 17,093 patents that were assigned to universities and public-sector institutions. These patents are certainly valuable they can spur further research, support professors and graduate students and boost endowments.

But private-sector patents may reverberate more widely through the economy, generating capital, manufacturing jobs and profits. And their intellectual debt to publicly funded research is rarely counted or acknowledged outside the fine print of these patent applications.

In all, 112,408 NIH-funded research grants 31% of the total disbursed between 1990 and 2007 produced research that was cited by 81,462 private-sector patents, the team found.

If you thought this was just ivory tower stuff that has no relevance, I think we contradict that, Azoulay said.

The findings demonstrate that the broad economic effects of NIH budget cuts would not necessarily be felt immediately, since it could take years for a research paper written by NIH-funded investigators to find its way into a patent application.

These effects are going to be delayed, Azoulay said. The slowdown resulting from a cut in the NIH budget now is for President Ivanka Trump or President Chelsea Clinton to worry about.

But the study also makes clear that publicly funded research lays the groundwork for important innovations and discoveries that companies and individuals seek to patent.

Biomedical research is perhaps the most complex type of research there is, Azoulay added: These are fundamentally harder problems. There are a lot of blind alleys, experimentation that leads to nothing.

Intriguingly, the new research found that there was little difference in the economic impact of grants for basic science and applied science. Both types of grants were equally likely to be cited in patent applications if they explored fundamental dynamics of biology (such as cellular processes) or if they studied specific disease states in humans.

That distinction is important, because researchers and scientific leaders have quarreled for years over how NIHs limited budgets should be apportioned.

Scientists who study very basic biological processes, or who work with simple organisms like yeast, earthworms or fruit flies, often argue that their contributions are most valuable because they shed light on how all life including human life works.

Scientists whose research is more applied, including clinical trials and epidemiological studies, believe their work contributes more directly to improving human health.

The new study suggests that both categories contribute to commercial innovation.

Stevens called this finding remarkable.

Azoulay acknowledged that neither the progress of life sciences research nor its contribution to the economy is neat or easy to quantify.

See more here:
Drastic cuts to NIH budget could translate to less innovation and fewer patents, study argues - Los Angeles Times

We had been worrying about frogs frogs that went to vernal pools to mate that then got covered with snow.

In late February, when the weather was unseasonably warm, we had gotten a press release from the states Department of Environmental Conservation that usually comes in late March. We look forward to receiving it every year. For us, it epitomizes human beings trying to make amends to the natural world we have tampered with.

After the ground has thawed, wood frogs and spotted salamanders, among other species, come out from their underground winter shelters in the woods to get to pools to breed. In the past, weve covered big-night migrations where the roads seemed to undulate with the massive movement of amphibians.

Volunteers with the DECs Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings Project not only record the weather conditions and count the amphibians, they help them safely cross the road, cautioning drivers and routing traffic around the well-traveled routes. The project is in its ninth year and so far 300 volunteers have helped more than 8,500 amphibians cross the road.

Earlier this month, after two feet of snow had fallen, we were interviewing Alvin Breisch about his new book, The Snake and the Salamander. For 26 years, until his retirement in 2009, Breisch was New York States amphibian and reptile specialist. He studied, catalogued, and worked to preserve the states herpetofauna its amphibians and reptiles, known as herps.

Who better to ask about our worries? We wondered if the frogs we had seen crossing our road to the pool on the other side that warm February night would be nipped in the bud like the cherry blossoms had been in Washington, D.C. this year.

Breisch told us, no it was the male frogs who had crossed to the pool and they would wait for the females.

Even with the snow? we asked.

Even with the snow, he said.

We spoke with Breisch about a wide variety of projects he has been involved with over the years to save species that otherwise would through human behavior become extinct.

Breisch was with the Endangered Species Unit and decided to use the same thought process for endangered reptiles and amphibians as the department used with game animals, setting bag limits.

For example, there were no regulations for the diamond-backed terrapin on Long Island, the only turtle that lives in brackish water. They were considered good eating; there were no regulations, recalled Breisch. He said that 10,000 to 20,000 were sold each year in New York Citys Fulton Fish Market.

We drafted regulations to limit harvest to have a self-sustaining population, said Breisch. It worked for years.

Currently, Breisch is working with a group of scientists on a Timber Rattlesnake Conservation Action Plan, documenting the current and historic range of the snake from Quebec to Texas and Florida and as far west as Minnesota. The area covers two Canadian provinces and 30-odd states. Breisch is a co-author for the New York State portion and editor for the entire work.

We saw inconsistent ways states were managing the snakes, he said of the reason for undertaking the project. He gave an example that he termed indescribably awful: Texas has rattlesnake roundups, so-called celebrations, where people collect live snakes, and use them for side-show type things, like hand-milking snakes or holding bagging contests.

This involves contestants entering a pit full of snakes and throwing them into bags. Its not good for the snakes and its not good for the people, he said. People get bitten and die. Most of the snakes die.

There are no timber rattlesnakes left in Canada, Breisch said, and Ontario is looking to see if the snakes might be reintroduced.

We asked why anyone would want to re-introduce a venomous snake, and Breisch replied, Its a movement among virtually all naturalists wed like to see a complete suite of different animals...Were looking for high biodiversity.

He went on, The health of the environment is better if you have a significant number of native species. Returning to the timber rattlesnake, as an example, he explained that they eat small rodents. Rodents do crop damage and tree damage; they carry black-legged ticks that carry Lyme disease.

Breisch had suffered, as had we, from another tick-borne disease, one that can be fatal, anaplasmosis, so that connection hit home.

During a podcast, Breisch gave us another example of an animal considered harmful being reintroduced into its native habitat: The wolf, absent for decades, was reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park. The thought was that wolves would help keep the overpopulation of deer, moose, and elk in check.

Follow-up studies showed that had happened as expected, Breisch said, but there was an unexpected impact on vegetation. The banks had been de-vegetated by the elk. With the wolves keeping the elk population under natural control, the streams became healthy again, he said

Humans have great hubris. The wilderness that our pioneer ancestors tamed now has to be re-invented and protected.

Each species is unique, said Breisch. We havent gotten to the point we understand that uniqueness.

He gave a practical example of the Massasauga rattlesnake from which a vaccination was developed in the 1800s, used as a model for vaccinations for other diseases.

But beyond the direct benefit of certain species to humans and our livestock, there are connections in the natural world that we have destroyed or are destroying that we dont understand.

Sure, we were relieved to learn that the male frogs are waiting patiently beneath the snow for their female mates to arrive. But we went on to reflect how odd it was that we should worry about a few frogs we had blithely seen hopping across our road that warm February night but not the enormity of all we as human beings had done to disturb the natural order weve stayed warm these cold spring nights in our home heated with oil. Each day we drive to work in our car fueled with gasoline.

We know these fossil fuels are destroying our planet and may even be causing the erratic weather we are right now experiencing, and yet we go on, taking the path most familiar to us.

In the same way we trusted Al Breisch, as a qualified scientist, to quell our fears about the frogs, we trust the vast majority of scientists who have studied climate change and determined that humans are affecting it.

Were grateful we live in New York State that is moving forward with, even as the federal government is starting to peel back, programs that promote renewable energy.

While we commend the citizens who stand in the rain to help the amphibians cross the road, we urge still greater commitment to reduce the human footprint upon our Earth.

Melissa Hale-Spencer

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The road to recovery means taking care of species besides just humans - The Altamont Enterprise