The National Institutes of Health, which has been in the spotlight for its connections to the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology, is the single largest funder for biomedical research globally, with a budget exceeding $40 billion in 2020.
The agency encompasses 27 separate institutes, such as the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, which conduct thousands of research projects across the United States.
NIH Director Francis Collins was eager to highlight the agency’s innovative successes during congressional hearings this week amid mounting questions about the theory that COVID-19 could have escaped from the Wuhan lab last year.
The Biden administration has proposed a new high-risk, high-reward disease research agency called the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health under the NIH, in which researchers will develop breakthrough treatments for cancer and Alzheimer’s, as well as other serious and poorly understood health conditions. Details of the new agency are scarce, but here are some standout NIH products of interest:
FAUCI, THE NIH, THE WUHAN LAB, BATS, AND COVID-19: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
CancerSEEK
A team of researchers led by Dr. Nickolas Papadopoulos of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine developed a blood test that measures DNA and proteins in the blood to screen for multiple types of cancers at once to complement colonoscopies, mammographies, and other cancer screening tools. In the NIH-funded study completed last year, the CancerSEEK blood test detected 26 cancers among roughly 10,000 women with no history or signs of cancer. Fourteen of those cancers were in organs such as the ovaries, kidneys, and the lymphatic system, for which there are no approved screening tests. CancerSEEK also detected nine cancers before they had spread from their original location in the body.
“There are already some good tests for screening, for example, colonoscopy or mammography for women, and a new blood test shouldn’t try to replace what actually works,” Papadopoulos told the Washington Examiner. “It turned out that actually, this blood test can be complementary and additive to the standard of care screening.”
Exact Sciences, the Wisconsin-based diagnostic company behind at-home colon cancer screening test Cologuard, bought the license to develop and market the test last year. The company will have to run large-scale clinical trials with the test and secure approval from the Food and Drug Administration to bring it to hospitals and doctors’ offices.
Microneedle patch flu vaccine
A team of chemical engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University developed a less invasive delivery system for the annual flu shot by removing the shot entirely. The researchers enveloped a concentrated version of the flu vaccine in conical microneedles on a thin adhesive that dispenses the vaccine painlessly through the skin. This delivery system also eliminates waste in the form of needles and other biohazards that require specific disposal conditions, according to Dr. Mark Prausnitz, a chemical engineer at Georgia Tech who led the team developing the patch.
“There are these various logistical advantages that increase accessibility, whether it’s in developing countries where there aren’t enough doctors or even in remote places in the United States where it may be a long drive to get to a suitable healthcare facility,” Prausnitz said. “Also, people don’t like shots.”
He added that the new vaccine delivery system would appeal to people who abstain from the yearly flu shot out of fear of needles. The researchers were able to test the product in 100 adult trial participants with no negative safety results. However, the product will need to undergo rounds of larger clinical trials before it’s introduced to the larger public.
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Esketamine
The NIH has helped fund several studies into how esketamine, a variant of the club drug ketamine, can treat symptoms of severe depression and stress. In 2019, for instance, the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health funded a study led by Dr. Conor Liston of Weill Cornell Medicine to measure the benefit of treating chronic stress in mice using ketamine. The team examined neurons in the prefrontal cortex of mice exposed to long-term stressors before and after treatment with the chemical ketamine and found the drug restored the normal coordinated activity of neural circuits in the mices’ brains that were disrupted by long-term stress.
The FDA approved approval for the esketamine nasal spray from Janssen in 2019. Research into the benefits of esketamine to treat addiction disorders is ongoing.
