# Presentation: 222518

## PEER REVIEW ADVISORY COMMITTEE

**PEER REVIEW ADVISORY COMMITTEE**
**Update on New CSR Realignments**
**Don Schneider, Ph.D.**

**National Institutes of Health****U.S. Department of Health and Human Services**

**November 3, 2008**

## Reality checks are sometimes necessary

**Gene Therapy and Inborn Errors Special Emphasis Panel - started in 2003**
**Nuclear Dynamics and Transport - chartered in 2005**
**Current NIH Enhancing Peer Review efforts – implications for study section organization**

## Gene Transfer and Inborn Errors survived planned closing

**Created as interim review home for inborn errors applications**
**Reorganization completed 2005**
**In 2008, GTIE reviewed 30-35 applications a cycle**
**Rule of thumb, after one year, special emphasis panel should be chartered or discontinued**

## GTIE Working Group met August 18, 2008

**ROSTER**
**Gerard Berry, Children’s Hospital, Boston**
**Katherine High, Children’s Hospital, Philadelphia**
**Mark Kay, Stanford U**
**Blake Roessler, U Michigan**
**Mendel Tuchman, Children’s Nat Med Ctr**
**Stephen Warren, Emory U**
**NIH: Rebecca Link, NHLBI; Catherine McKeon, NIDDK; Richard Panniers, CSR; Don Schneider, CSR**

## Working Group strongly favors chartering

**Broaden guidelines**
**Molecular mechanisms of genetic diseases**
**Development of genetic disease therapies**
**Preclinical and initial clinical studies of genetic disease therapies**
**Shared interests**
**Gene & Drug Delivery (basic)**
**Genetics of Health & Disease (complex genetics)**
**Broaden name**
**Genetic Disease Mechanisms and Therapies (GDMT)**

## Cell Biology study sections have grown slowly

**Nuclear Dynamics & Transport (NDT) 40-45 applications/cycle**
**Cell Structure & Function (CSF) 60 applications/cycle**
**Cellular Signaling & Regulatory Systems (CSRS) 65 applications/cycle**

## Cell Biology-Nanotechnology Working Group met September 18, 2008

**ROSTER**
**Ashutosh Chilkoti, Duke U**
**Joseph Gall, Carnegie Inst**
**Ian Macara, U Virginia**
**Paul Matsudaira, MIT**
**Timothy Mitchison, Harvard Med**
**Michele Pagano, New York U**
**Peter Rubenstein, U Iowa**
**Pamela Silver, Dana Farber**
**NIH: Ravi Basavappa, NIGMS; Lori Henderson, NIBIB; Jeff Schloss, NHGRI; Bert Shapiro, NIGMS; Noni Byrnes, CSR; George Chacko, CSR; Don Schneider, CSR**

## Working Group agreed to disband NDT

**Reassign applications and members to existing study sections**
**Cell cycle regulation, mitosis, and checkpoints to CSRS**
**Nuclear membrane, matrix, and architecture, pore development and function, nucleo-cytoplasmic transport to CSF, fit well with cytoskeleton, trafficking, and multiprotein assemblies**
**CSRS & CSF increase to 70-80 applications/cycle**
**Rename CSF: Nuclear & Cytoplasmic Structure/Function & Dynamics (NCSD)**

## Working Group considered Nanotechnology

**Nanotechnology (NANO) study section – diverse, more than 100 applications/cycle**
**Applied Nanotechnology (NANA) – appropriate for cell biology, with basic applications remaining in NANO**
**Complications – number trend unclear, bioengineers not comfortable (including James Baker, U Michigan)**
**Cell Biology does have a handful of technology-driven applications every cycle**

## NIH Enhancing Peer Review will drive study section changes

**Likely changes**
**Shorter applications, 12 page R01**
**Shorter written critiques, 1-2 pages**
**Likely result on study sections**
**Enhanced quality of review outcomes**
**Enhanced efficiency of review process**
**If 20% gain in efficiency, ideal workload may shift from 60-80 to 80-100 applications/study section**
**[This may not be a good time to charter small study sections.]**

## PRAC approval soughtto finalize realignments

**Gene Therapy & Inborn Errors**
**Expand as Genetic Disease Mechanisms and Therapies (GDMT)?**
**Charter, or special emphasis panel for now?**
**Nuclear Transport & Dynamics**
**Split between Cell Structure & Function (CSF) and Cellular Signaling & Regulatory Systems (CSRS)?**
**Rename CSF as Nuclear & Cytoplasmic Structure/Function & Dynamics (NCSD)?**
**Nanotechnology (NANO)**
**With divided opinions and number decline, postpone splitting for now?**
**Meanwhile, for technology-driven R01s in Cell Biology, run special emphasis panel?**

## The End