National Institutes Of Health

The biotechnology world was buzzing Tuesday with the news that the National Institutes of Health, along with Genetic Therapy Inc. of Gaithersburg, Md., has been awarded a surprisingly broad patent on a key gene therapy technique. The patent could be worth millions of dollars in royalties to Genetic Therapy, and the fledgling firm's stock jumped $1.50 Tuesday to close at $10 on the Nasdaq exchange.

A pregnant researcher at the National Institutes of Health contends she was deliberately poisoned last summer with a radioactive isotope placed in food stored in a lunchroom refrigerator at her laboratory. Dr. Maryann Ma, a postdoctoral researcher in a cancer lab at the NIH, said at a news conference in Washington that she was "contaminated on purpose by someone at NIH" and that doctors at the federal health agency then failed to give her proper treatment for internal radiation poisoning.

A federal agency has committed itself to a $330-million long-term lease for a new bioresearch building in Baltimore, but its occupancy is stalled while officials grapple with an issue that first surfaced before construction even began. The 10-story building vibrates, particularly in its upper floors. Now, as engineers try once again to sort out the problem, questions remain about whether highly sensitive scientific research can ever be performed in the structure.

In a high-profile dissent from Bush administration policy, the nation's top medical research official told senators Monday that he backs an end to restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. "From my standpoint, it is clear today that American science will be better-served, and the nation will be better-served, if we let our scientists have access to more stem cell lines," Dr. Elias A.

When he was studying for his doctorate in microbiology, Mark E. Shirtliff thought he knew a lot about bacteria. Then things got scary. He discovered that bacteria can band together into sheets called biofilms. When they do, they alter their behavior. They build complex communities, establish lines of communication and coordinate their actions. Like ants, the microbes find power in numbers. And they're nasty. "Infections that should respond to antibiotics don't," Shirtliff said.

The National Institutes of Health has temporarily suspended a federal contractor that had been reviewing the health dangers of chemicals for the government while also working for the chemical industry. In addition, the NIH will convene a new advisory panel to investigate all toxicology program contracts for conflicts of interest and report back by July 1. For eight years, Sciences International, an Alexandria, Va.

A senior researcher at the National Institutes of Health, who became a symbol of the agency's improper entanglements with drug companies and whose lasting presence on the federal payroll enraged members of Congress, has retired from the government. Dr. P. "Trey" Sunderland III accepted about $612,000 in consulting and speaking fees from Pfizer Inc. and about $200,000 from other companies from 1998 to 2004, all without getting required approvals in advance from the NIH.

The National Institutes of Health will stop breeding government-owned chimpanzees for research, the agency announced this week. The NIH's National Center for Research Resources, which has had a moratorium on breeding such chimpanzees since 1995, cited financial reasons for its decision to permanently end the practice.

A UCLA research associate tampered with data in a study of drug users and stole money intended for study subjects, a federal oversight office said Monday. According to a notice in the Federal Register, James David Lieber, staff research associate at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, "knowingly and intentionally falsified and fabricated" interviews, urine samples and urine sample records.

All eye doctor Natalia Uribe needed was five seconds. But her patient, Julia Bailey, was two days shy of her first birthday and had an infinitesimal attention span. Uribe wiggled a toy duck in front of Judith's eyes with one hand and held a vision prism with the other. Judith squirmed, giggled and finally focused on the toy, giving Uribe her fleeting opportunity to determine if the infant favored one eye over the other.