September 2009 Archives

NRC Report, "A New Biology for the 21st Century," Looks Good; Focus on Food, Environment, Energy, and Health

By Richard O'Grady on September 18, 2009 1:46 PM  Permalink | No Comments | No TrackBacks

AIBS attended the Sept. 17th release of the widely-anticipated NRC report, "A New Biology for the 21st Century: Ensuring the United States Leads the Coming Biology Revolution," requested by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Department of Energy. Its findings were presented by three members of its writing committee:

Phillip A. Sharp, Institute Professor, Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, MIT
Anthony C. Janetos, Director, Joint Global Change Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park
Keith R. Yamamoto, Executive Vice Dean, School of Medicine, University of California - San Francisco

The press release, PPTs, full report, and other information are online at http://national-academies.org/morenews/20090917.html.

The report calls for a "new multiagency, multiyear, and multidisciplinary initiative to capitalize on the extraordinary advances recently made in biology and to accelerate new breakthroughs that could solve some of society's most pressing problems -- particularly in the areas of food, environment, energy, and health."

The report is not an attempt to redefine what all of biology is or should be. We see it as a scientifically sound and strategically-savvy plan identifying four interconnected areas of biology -- (1) food supply and safety, (2) clean renewable energy from biological sources, (3) human health and disease prevention, and (4) ecosystem services -- that in synergy have the potential to attract public support and funding with practical results and education goals that improve the human condition.

Handled smartly by the scientific community to which it has now been delivered, "A New Biology for the 21st Century," has the potential to become the "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" for biology. Contact AIBS's Public Policy Director, Robert Gropp, at rgropp@aibs.org, if you can help.


NRC Releasing Report, "A New Biology for the 21st Century," on 17 Sept. 2009 at Public Session

By Richard O'Grady on September 9, 2009 11:04 AM  Permalink | No Comments | No TrackBacks

AIBS has been following the NRC work on this report over the last year or so. We have received the invitation below to attend the public release of the final report on 17 Sept 2009; we plan to have representatives there. Others are invited to attend too -- just reply to acline@nas.edu (details below).

Text of Invitation:

Last December, you registered for the 2008 National Academies Biology Summit: The Role of the Life Sciences in Transforming America's Future. The Summit was held as part of a National Research Council study entitled: A New Biology for the 21st Century. I would like to invite you to attend the public briefing to mark the release of the study report.

Event: Public Briefing on NRC report: A New Biology for the 21st Century

Where: Members' Room, National Academy of Sciences Building, 2101 Constitution Avenue, Washington DC

When: 10am, Thursday, September 17th, 2009

RSVP to: acline@nas.edu

On Thursday, September 17th, Phillip Sharp (Institute Professor, MIT) and Keith Yamamoto (Executive Vice Dean, University of California, San Francisco) will give a public briefing on the report, A New Biology for the 21st Century, on the occasion of its public release. The report was written at the request of NIH, NSF and the DOE and authored by a committee co-chaired by Dr. Sharp and Dr. Thomas Connelly, executive vice president and chief innovation officer of DuPont Company.

Biological research is in the midst of revolutionary change. Technological and conceptual advances have allowed biologists to collect and make sense of ever more detailed observations at ever smaller time intervals, and the Human Genome Project has had enormous payoffs that were largely unanticipated when the project began. Advances in the life sciences hold tremendous promise for surmounting many of the major challenges confronting the United States and the world. Historically, major challenges have inspired science to focus attention on critical needs. Scientific efforts based on meeting societal needs have laid the foundation for countless new products, industries, even entire economic sectors that were unimagined when the work began.

A forthcoming NRC report, A New Biology for the 21st Century concludes that the life sciences have reached a point where a new level of inquiry is possible. The report names this new level of inquiry the New Biology and explains why it has the potential to take on more ambitious challenges than ever before. As examples of the kinds of challenges this approach can address, the committee has chosen aspects of critical economic sectors--food, the environment, energy, and health--to which the New Biology could make important contributions. These are challenges that cannot be addressed by any one subdiscipline or agency--opportunities that require integration across biology and with other sciences and engineering, and that are difficult to capitalize on within traditional institutional and funding structures. Each challenge will require technological and conceptual advances that are not now at hand, across a disciplinary spectrum that is not now encompassed by the field. Achieving these goals will demand, in each case, transformative advances, but achieving understanding at this systemic level is the promise of the New Biology.

Looking forward to seeing you there,

Ann Reid
Study Director
Senior Program Officer
Board on Life Sciences
202-334-1263
areid@nas.edu

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