When President Bush signed into law the National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006 on Jan. 15 - the agency's third omnibus reauthorization in history and first since 1993 - it signaled renewed confidence in the NIH mission, its employees and its leadership, said NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni.

While he anticipates no short-term change in the way NIH operates day to day - after ll, the Roadmap for Medical Research has been a prototype embodying the principles of reauthorization since 2003 - Zerhouni sees nothing but benefits emerging from a reauthorization process that has been evolving ever since the doubling of the NIH budget from 1998 to 2003 mandated a fresh look at how a bigger agency functions.
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Present at the ribbon-cutting for the metabolic unit are (from l) acting NIDDK director Dr. Griffin Rodgers; CC director Dr. John Gallin; NIDDK scientific director Dr. Marvin Gershengorn; Dr. Monica Skarulis, director of NIDDK's metabolic research core; NIH deputy director for intramural research Dr. Michael Gottesman; and NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni.

On Jan. 25, the Clinical Center and NIDDK introduced the new NIH metabolic clinical research unit with a ribbon-cutting and open house. Located on the fifth and seventh floors of the CRC, the unit houses facilities that will allow researchers to conduct cutting-edge research on the physiology, prevention and treatment of obesity.

Obesity's "connection to co-morbid conditions like diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer will drive public health in the future," said NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni at the event, adding that the CC is the ideal facility for multi-disciplinary research required to address the obesity epidemic.
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