Congressional Hearing Explores The Future of
Neuroscience Research and Development
John Reppas, Neurotechnology Industry Organization
On September 29 2010, the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Domestic Policy convened a packed hearing entitled “From Molecules to Minds: The Future of Neuroscience Research and Development.” The purpose of the hearing was to assess the current state of US neuroscience research, with a specific emphasis on: (1) understanding the extent of collaboration among the federal agencies and other entities that sponsor such research, and (2) expediting the development of therapies that meet the neurological and mental-health needs of veterans and active-service military personnel. The committee heard testimony from senior leadership at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the Veterans Administration (VA), the Society for Neuroscience, as well as from a number of distinguished academic neuroscientists and neurological-disease advocates.
This timely hearing emerged directly from ongoing conversations between the Neurotechnology Industry Organization (NIO) and Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), a co-sponsor of the National Neurotechnology Initiative (HR 1383), as well as many others on the Hill. The federal government currently spends approximately $6 billion, across 16 government agencies, on neuroscience funding. NIO has long emphasized the need for Congress to evaluate the coordination and success of this funding and to identify ways in which federal funding may be further leveraged to improve therapies for diseases of the brain and nervous system. Zack Lynch, NIO Executive Director, was selected by Subcommittee on Domestic Policy to submit written testimony to the hearing, detailing the legislative action NIO believes can better focus the government’s efforts to assist translational neuroscience.
During testimony, the panel of expert witnesses agreed that the promise for a scientifically principled approach to preventing, treating and curing brain disease has never been greater. Basic-science advances that have emerged from the NIH’s extramural program, such as the framing of mental illness as a disorder of brain development and the development of optogenetic techniques that allow for a temporally precise, genetically specific, modulation of brain circuitry, were cited as fundamentally disruptive influences on translational neuroscience. The panel also detailed many examples of ongoing neurotechnology collaborations in which government is a partner: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsorship of academic efforts to develop a brain read-out neural control system for a prosthetic limb, a NINDS-Department of Defense program to survey and study risk factors for suicidality in the armed forces, and the development of pre-competitive research collaborations between pharma, academia and government, like the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.
The optimistic long view of translational neuroscience was tempered by a discussion of the challenges that neurotechnology currently faces in 2010. While industry was not directly represented at the hearing, more than one witness emphasized that, the risk of CNS drug development remains exceptionally high compared to other therapeutic areas. This, in turn accounts for the recent under-resourcing of big pharma’s internal drug-discovery efforts for brain and psychiatric diseases. The unmet medical need mentioned by every congressional member of the sub-committee was the increasing rate of suicide in the armed services. There was broad agreement on the urgent need, as both a mental-health and national-security priority, to identify and treat at-risk soldiers, as well as to understand the biological roots of suicidality in traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder suffered on the battlefield.
NIO thanks Chairman Kucinich (D-OH) and Congressman Kennedy for convening this hearing, as well as for their thoughtful oversight and exploration of the ways in which neurotechnology can be developed for the good of the nation. The testimony offered at this hearing re-affirms NIO’s fundamental view that -- given the scope of the challenges currently posed by brain disease -- the government is uniquely positioned among stakeholders to make the promise of neurotechnology a reality that impacts public health. In the next Congress, NIO will continue its ongoing legislative efforts, as well as introduce a new piece of legislation, the National Defense Neurotechnology Initiative. Our goal is to strengthen the ability of the federal government to develop and regulate innovative neurotechnology, and to help both the military and civilian sector safely and effectively commercialize products that emerge from this research.
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