U.S. Department of Health and Human Services NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News National Eye Institute (NEI) <http://www.nei.nih.gov/> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, October 27, 2006 CONTACT: National Eye Institute, <neinews@xxxxxxxxxxx> NIH News Advisory NIH COMPLETES FORMATION OF NATIONAL NETWORK OF NANOMEDICINE CENTERS WHAT: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has completed its national network of eight Nanomedicine Development Centers (NDCs). WHY: To announce to the scientific community the completion of the national network of NDCs. WHEN: The final four NDCs were funded this year. NIH funded four NDCs last year. WHERE: The final four NDCs are located at: -- Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta -- Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana -- University of California at Los Angeles -- University of California Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory The four NDCs funded last year are located at: -- Baylor College of Medicine in Houston -- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign -- University of California at San Francisco -- Columbia University, New York Morningside MORE INFORMATION: NDCs are staffed by multidisciplinary scientific teams, including biologists, physicians, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, engineers, and computer scientists. In addition to conducting research into the physical properties of structures inside cells to determine how biology's molecular machines are built, these teams will begin training the next generation of students in this emerging field of medical science. The Nanomedicine Initiative applies an engineering approach to the study of cellular and subcellular systems in an effort not only to understand, but to precisely control molecular complexes that operate at the nanoscale. This will allow for development of new technologies to prevent or cure disease and to repair damaged tissue. The Nanomedicine Initiative, part of NIH's Roadmap for Medical Research, is led by Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Eye Institute (NEI), Jeffery Schloss, Ph.D., program director, Technology Development, National Human Genome Research Institute, and Richard S. Fisher, Ph.D., program director, Corneal Diseases at NEI, in collaboration with a program team representing institutes and centers across the NIH. "Future progress in medicine will depend on our understanding and modulating the complexity of biological systems," said Dr. Sieving. "The NIH Roadmap, including the Nanomedicine Initiative, will advance our knowledge of biological systems. This will provide the scientific foundation for new strategies for diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease." For further information on this program, visit: <http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/nanomedicine/index.asp> The NIH Roadmap for Medical Research is a series of far-reaching initiatives designed to transform the Nation's medical research capabilities and speed the movement of scientific discoveries from the bench to the bedside. It provides a framework of the priorities the NIH must address in order to optimize its entire research portfolio and lays out a vision for a more efficient and productive system of medical research. Additional information about the NIH Roadmap can be found at <http://nihroadmap.nih.gov>. The National Eye Institute (NEI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is the Federal government's lead agency for vision research that leads to sight-saving treatments and plays a key role in reducing visual impairment and blindness. For more information, visit the NEI Website at <http://www.nei.nih.gov/>. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit <www.nih.gov>. ## This NIH News Release is available online at: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/oct2006/nei-27.htm. To subscribe (or unsubscribe) from this list, go to http://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=nihpress&A=1.
