Minutes of the 100th Meeting of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse

September 9-10, 2008

The National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse convened its 100th meeting at 2:00 p.m. on September 9, 2008 in Conference Room C, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Nora D. Volkow, Director of NIDA, chaired the overall meeting and Dr. Timothy P. Condon, Deputy Director of NIDA, chaired the review of applications. The closed portion of the meeting on September 9, 2008, from 2:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m., was for the purpose of reviewing applications for Federal grant assistance and was open only to Council members and Federal employees. The open session, which was open to the public, was September 10, 2008, from 8:30 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. The Council adjourned on September 20, 2008 at 10:00 a.m.

Council Members Present:

John P. Allen, Ph.D.
Louis E. Baxter, M.D. 
Francisco Castellanos, M.D.
Steven Childers, Ph.D.
Thomas Crowley, M.D.
Igor Grant, M.D.
Mark T. Greenberg, Ph.D.
Daniele Piomelli, Ph.D.
John P. Rice, Ph.D.
Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, Ph.D.
Ellie Schoenbaum, M.D.
Hazel Szeto, Ph.D., M.D.
Marina E. Wolf, Ph.D.
Janet Wood, MBA
Xiaoyan Zhang, Ph.D.

Council Members Absent:

Anita S. Everett, M.D.
Debra K. DePrato, M.D.
Barry M. Lester, Ph.D.

Council Chairs Present:

Nora D. Volkow, M.D.
Timothy Condon, Ph.D.

Executive Secretary:

Teresa Levitin, Ph.D.

Federal Employees Present:

Members of the Public Present:

Marshall Cohen
William Corrigall, Ph.D.
Susan David, Ph.D.
Stacia Hall Fleisher - American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Geoff Mumford, Ph.D. - American Psychological Association
Joan Levy Zlotnik - Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research
Amy Pollick, Ph.D. - Association for Psychological Science
Julie Miller, Ph.D. - Masimax Resources, Inc.
Sue Camaione - Masimax Resources, Inc.
Sarah Mandell, Ph.D. - Society for Research in Child Development
Robert Morrison - National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors
Diedre Watkins
Andrew Kessler, Ph.D. - CAADAC
Alejandro Garcia-Barbar - IQ Solutions
Helen Cesari, M.SC
Roy Walker, M.B.A.
M. McGowan - Federation of Behavioral Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Bill Mally - NAAG
Daniel Guarnera - NAADAC
Trina Stevens - Masimax Resources, Inc.
Taya McMillan - Masimax Resources, Inc.
M. Theran - UCLA
Rahat Khan, Ph.D.
Lori Whitten, Ph.D. - Masimax Resources, Inc.
Roseline Hocks - Masimax Resources, Inc.

1. Call to Order

   This portion of the meeting was closed to the public in accordance with sections 552b(c) (4) and 552b(c) (6), Title 5, U.S. Code and section 10(d) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. Appendix 2).

   Dr. Timothy Condon, Deputy Director, NIDA, called the meeting to order and welcomed the Council and staff. Dr. Condon provided an overview of the agenda for the meeting and reminded those present that the Federal Advisory Committee Act applies to Council meetings and that this portion of the meeting was closed to the public.

   Dr. Teresa Levitin, Executive Secretary, summarized relevant NIH policies, provided detailed instructions on Council review procedures, and reminded those present about NIH confidentiality and conflict of interest policies.

2. Application Reviews

   In turn, the Director or a designee for the Division of Pharmacotherapies and Medical Consequences of Drug Abuse; Office of Science Policy and Communications; the Division of Basic Neuroscience and Behavioral Research; the Division of Clinical Neuroscience and Behavioral Research; and the Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research; presented their applications for consideration by the Council. For each, Council provided concurrence with the initial scientific reviews en bloc.

   Members must absent themselves from the Council meetings during discussion of, and voting on, individual applications from their own institutions or other applications in which there is a conflict of interest, real or apparent. Conflicts of interest statements were signed by each member of the Council. Members were not required to leave if an application in conflict with that member was acted upon en bloc.

   For this Council, 884 applications, requesting $1,041,448,532 in Total Years Direct Costs, went to review. Of these, 452 were scored by the Scientific Review Groups (SRGs) representing $128,435,522 in First Year Direct Costs and $576,481,506 Total Years Direct Costs. Council concurred with the SRGs in time and amount.

1. Call to Order

   Dr. Nora Volkow, Director, NIDA, called the open portion of the meeting to order and welcomed the Council members. She reminded the Council and audience that the meeting was open to the public in compliance with the Government in the Sunshine Act and indicated that time would be provided for public comment. Dr. Volkow called attention to future Council meetings: February 3-4, 2009, May 12, 2009, September 15-16, 2009; February 2-3, 2010.

2. Consideration of the Minutes of Council

   The Minutes of the May 2008 meeting were approved as written.

3. NIDA Director's Report - Nora D. Volkow, M.D., Director, NIDA

   Dr. Volkow welcomed Dr. John Allen as the new representative from the Department of Veterans Affairs and thanked the members who were rotating off the Council, Drs. Greenberg, Lester and Rice, for their service on Council. Dr. Volkow then began her report with a budget update, noting that the NIDA total for FY 2006 had been a 0.8% decrease from the previous year and that the estimated 2008 total budget represents an increase of 0.1%. This is the same increase estimated for the 2009 President's Budget.

   She then presented a summary of some issues raised at the NIH Leadership Forum meeting concerning early stage investigators and effectiveness research. She described NIH-wide concerns about maintaining a sufficient number of new investigators. NIH has determined that 1500 is the minimum number of new Principal Investigators to support each year and that, in order to improve the demographic profile of the NIH workforce, more Principal Investigators at earlier career stages must be added. There are different ways Institutes and Centers (ICs) may contribute toward reaching this goal. The Comparative Effectiveness Research Act is in response to concerns about the high and rising cost of health care. Effectiveness research can answer questions about allocating resources, and there is discussion now about how best to develop and use effectiveness research. The role of NIH in this Federal effort is not clear at this time, nor is it known how much effectiveness research NIH supports currently. However, NIDA has supported much effectiveness research within the services research program.
   
   Dr. Volkow then described the roadmap initiative on the epigenomics of human health and disease, noting that $8,000,000 has been committed to an RFA that will focus on how the epigenome changes with conditions of aging, development, gender and environmental exposures, and specifically looking at how the epigenome changes with diseases or conditions that cross ICs, such as inflammation, pain and obesity.
   
   Dr. Volkow next described recent NIDA activities. She noted that the Scientific Director Administrative Review had taken place in April and that the review committee had concluded that "With respect to the scientific vision of Dr. Hoffer... the Committee finds his accomplishments in realizing that vision to be highly commendable." The committee had a number of recommendations as well, and Dr. Volkow noted that Dr. Hoffer would provide a full summary of the committee's report at the next Council meeting and address how he will implement their recommendations. Dr. Volkow then described the charge of the NIDA Prevention Research Review Workgroup, noting that its first meeting was September 8-9. Both Council members and additional senior scientists are on this workgroup, and a report is expected in 2009.
   
   There was also a NIDA staff retreat on ways to promote transformational and innovative research. Subject team workgroups focused on medications development, translational research, promoting infrastructure utilization, identifying the next generation of prevention and genetics/epigenetics research, increasing interactions of researchers from different fields, increasing the use of the NIH research infrastructure to translate basic research findings to treatment strategies, and identifying strategies to proactively attract the best people to NIDA.
   
   Dr. Volkow then announced the recipients of the new Avant-Garde Award for Innovative HIV/AIDS research. This new award is similar to the NIH Pioneer Award. It provides $500,000 per year for five years of support for individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose cutting-edge and transformative approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research on drug abuse and HIV/AIDS. The three recipients are Dr. Ileana Cristea at Princeton University, Dr. Jerome Groopman at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Medical Center and Dr. Julio Montaner at the University of British Columbia.
   
   Dr. Volkow noted that press coverage of the XVII International AIDS conference in Mexico City in August reached an estimated 50 million people through TV, radio, online and print in the USA, Mexico, Central and South America.
   
   Dr. Volkow then turned to the work of the Divisions, noting the FOAs that had been released, some of the interesting findings that had been obtained from various grants, and she described related activities, such as a Congressional Briefing sponsored by the Friends of NIDA on developing new tools to prevent and treat addiction. She noted the increased emphasis on medication development at NIDA as well as the importance of screening and brief interventions. A NIDA Resource Guide is being developed which will target adult primary care, with a key goal of increasing screening for illicit drug abuse and providing a clinician-friendly guide to support screening and brief interventions. The finished manual will be disseminated widely.
   
   Dr. Volkow described the many ways NIDA is working with the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program, including visits with the Mayo Clinic CTA to discuss possible collaborative projects, such as possible projects on smoking, chronic pain management and screening/brief intervention of SUD in primary care, emergency care and trauma units as well as electronic medical records.
   
   At the 2008 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, NIDA will again hold a mini-convention, including symposia on epigenetics and brain function and cortical development and substance abuse, among other topics. Further, over 1200 participants registered for the June 2008 conference on Blending Addiction Science and Treatment: the Impact of Evidence-Based Practices on Individuals, Families and Communities. This conference was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, and it was a very successful conference, with 74% of the participants noting an intention to change clinical practice as a result of attending. Also, NIDA participated in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the world's largest high school science fair, with 1500 finalists from 50 countries and more than one million students entering at the local level. NIDA selected three awardees from 50 addiction-related or deviant behavior-related entries, and the three winners, Kapil Ramachandran, Ethan Guinn, and Shelby Raye, were brought to NIH where they presented their projects to NIDA staff and met with Dr. Zerhouni. Follow-up activities included inviting these students to the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and mentoring them at the meeting. This was the first time NIH had participated in this way, and it was so successful that other ICs have expressed interest in participating.
   
   Council members thanked Dr. Volkow for her presentation. Discussion included ways to bring more junior scientists into research careers, such as teaming junior scientists with more senior scientists or using other mechanisms, such as Centers mechanisms, for nurturing new investigators. It was noted that more work needs to be done on the effect of videogames on neuronal circuits. Discussion then turned to ways to educate and train medical providers on substance use and abuse issues, including prevention and treatment, as well as the opportunities that are currently available and the difficulties of maintaining research involvement during clinical training. Ways to provide more training in drug abuse in both medical school and during residency were also discussed. It was agreed that some way of involving more clinical researchers, more physician-scientists, in drug abuse research is necessary. Dr. Grant offered to work with other interested Council members to generate some ideas or recommendations about how medical school training and residency could better facilitate the development of drug abuse researchers. The importance of using the results of effectiveness research appropriately was also noted.
4. Public Comments
   Robert Morrison from the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors described the success of the recent Congressional briefing organized by the Friends of NIDA and he thanked NIDA staff for their outreach efforts.

   Stacia Hall Fleisher of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry thanked NIDA and the Council for their concern about clinical research training. She described a 10-year evaluation of the Academy's portfolio, noting the success of several programs, and a new program for junior faculty researchers.

5. Adjournment

   The 100th meeting of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse was adjourned at l0:00 a.m. Council members departed for a site visit to the NIDA Intramural Research Program in Baltimore, Maryland.

Certification

I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are accurate and complete.

Council Roster

Note: Informational materials provided to the public at the open session of the meeting may be obtained from the Executive Secretary.