The NIH Fat Cat List

From: Even in a Time of Plenty, Some Do Better Than Others. "Fat cat" basic researchers, directors of large trials and surveys, and genomics Pooh-Bahs top the list of scientists with the most NIH funding. By Jocelyn Kaiser, Science 2001 June 15;292:1995-1997.

"Science decided to take its own look at the people at the top of the funding heap, examining the total amount of money received and number of grants. Recipients were divided into three groups -- those who do mostly basic research, clinical and social science researchers, and genomics centers. The leaders receive $3 million or more a year, eight times what the average investigator receives. At the same time, the portfolios of most of the top investigators include grants shared with other labs. Identifying the top-funded researchers from an NIH list of grants awarded in 2000 wasn't an easy task."

The ten top-funded basic research investigators

1. Stanley Prusiner, UC San Francisco: Prion diseases, $12.5M

2. Alfred Gilman, U of Texas SW Med. Center: Alliance for Cell Signaling, $9.8M

3. Ronald Crystal, Cornell University: Gene therapy, $6.6M

4. George Stamatoyannopoulos, University of Washington: Blood disease gene therapy, $6.4M

5. Seigo Izumo, Harvard/Beth Israel Deac. Med. Ctr.: Cardiovasc. functional genomics, $6.1M

5. Ian A. Wilson, Scripps Research Institute: Structural genomics initiative, $5.6M

6. Rainer Storb, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Res. Ctr.: Bone marrow transplants, $5.4M

7. Richard Boucher, University of North Carolina: Cystic fibrosis gene therapy, $5.1M

9. Paul Greengard, Rockefeller University: Signal transduction, $5.0M

10. Michael Gimbrone, Harvard/B&W's Hospital: Vascular endothelium, $4.9M

The ten top-funded clinical / social science researchers

1. Donald Morton, John Wayne Cancer Institute: Cancer vaccine, surgery trials, $11.9M

2. J Richard Udry, U of North Carolina: Adolescent health survey, $8.4M

3. David Alberts, U of Arizona: Cancer prevention trials, $6.3M

4. Thomas Coates, UC San Francisco: AIDS behavioral prevention, $5.8M

5. Fred Appelbaum, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Res. Ctr.: Adult leukemia research, $5.7M

6. Igor Grant, UC San Diego: AIDS neurology, tissue bank, $5.2M

7. Kenneth Menton, Duke University: Demographics of aging, $5.1M

8. Walter Willett, Harvard University: Diet and disease risk, $5.1M

(The Nurses Health Study was used to propagandize for Fen-Phen)

9. Robert Hobson, U of Med/Dent New Jersey: Vascular surgery trial, $5.1M

10. Carl Grunfeld, UC San Francisco: HIV and metabolism, $4.7M

The five top-funded genomics investigators (the super-heavyweights)

1. Eric Lander, Whitehead Institute: $65.3M

2. Robert Waterston, Washington University: $44.6M

3. Richard Gibbs, Baylor College of Medicine: $23.8M

4. Gerald Rubin, UC Berkeley: $14.1M

5. Ronald Davis, Stanford University: $9.4M

(These are the major publicly funded genome sequencing labs, which will supposedly be winding down in 2003 (?). Total = $157.2M.

The ten top-funded multi-grant recipients

1. Ronald Crystal, Cornell University: Gene therapy, $6.6M

2. Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, UCLA: AIDS education, interventions, $5.7M

3. Kenneth Manton, Duke University: Demographics of Aging, $5.5M

4. Xiping Xu, Harvard University: Genetic, environmental epidemiology, $4.2M

5. Joseph Sodroski, Dana-Farber Cancer Inst.: HIV glycoproteins, $4.1M

6. Aravinda Chakravarti, Johns Hopkins University: Human disease genetics, $3.7M

7. Bruce Walker, Harvard University: Immune response to HIV, $3.4M

8. Irving Weissman, Stanford University: Hematopoietic stem cells, $3.0M

9. Daniel Tenen, Harvard University: Blood development and leukemia, $3.0M

10. Michael Oldstone, Scripps Research Institute: Virus immunobiology, $3.0M

Not counting the extravagant human genome project ($157.2 million), for various other genetics/gene therapy investigations, funding equals $44.3 million; for HIV/AIDS $28.9 million; for surveys, $19 million; for leukemia, hematopoietic stem cells, and bone marrow transplant research, $17.1 million; cell signaling (a reductionist indulgence which in practice leads to absurdities such as blaming excessive acid production for ulcers and treating them with H2 blockers and proton pump inhibitors instead of antibiotics), $14.8 million; diet and disease (sure to produce the kind of conflicting results to which the public has become accustomed), $11.4 million; vascular surgery/vascular endothelium research, $10 million. Even the $11.9 million cancer vaccine/surgery trials are aimed at treating tumors, not prevention of them. Needless to say, investigating the role of infection in so-called chronic diseases doesn't even show up on the radar screen.

Big Biology - The Alliance for Cell Signaling, a Special Pet of the Lasker Syndicate

A Nature Special Report: Alliance signals a fresh type of scientific research endeavour as the post-genomic face of 'big biology' gets under way. Diane Gershon investigates. Nature Jobs 2001 Apr 15. "With seven laboratories, about 50 principal investigators, and over US$25 million in federal funding for the first 5 of its 10 years, the Alliance for Cell Signaling (AFCS) is serving as an example of the post-genomic face of 'big biology.' This multi-disciplinary effort will focus on the G-protein-regulated (and related) signalling systems in two types of mouse cell - B lymphocyte and specialized heart cells known as cardiac myocytes." The $25 million is from the National Institute for General Medical Sciences; "Further funds from other NIH institutes, the pharmaceutical industry, non-profit organizations and an anonymous Dallas philanthropist could boost the five-year total to $50 million."

"Al Gilman, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Texas Southwestern (UT Southwestern) Medical Center in Dallas, began two years ago to assemble an impressive cadre of researchers to work to understand fully how cells interpret signals in a context-dependent manner. 'For years my own research had been going in a more and more reductionist direction but I had always been wondering how one could turn it around,' says Gilman, who was awarded the 1994 Nobel prize for his discovery of G proteins and their role in signal transduction in cells."

Evidently he believes that more money is the solution. And for this as well as his Nobel honors, it helps to have family connections to Lasker Syndicate tax dollars through the Goodman and Gilman "Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics" dynasty. Meanwhile, if not for his benefactors, ulcers could have been treated with antibiotics since the 1940s without knowing a damn thing about cell signaling.

National Institutes of Health "Brown Books"

In 1997, the American Health Foundation got $11 million from the NIH; The RAND Corporation got $11 million; Johns Hopkins University got $292 million; the University of California at San Francisco got $215 million; Harvard University got $180 million.

cast 07-08-07