Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
A Lonely Fight: This Republican Has Ideas On NIH Spending, But Not Many Like-Minded Allies
[Rep. Andy] Harris is without question uniquely knowledgeable on NIH issues. He is a former Johns Hopkins research physician whose work the agency funded for a decade. One study, on the 鈥渃erebrovascular effects of intravenous dopamine infusions in fetal sheep,鈥 is published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. He has also kept a close eye on the federal government鈥檚 research arm. But in the months following President Trump鈥檚 inauguration, he has pursued what is perhaps an unexpected mission given his background: changing the way the NIH spends its money. (Facher, 6/8)
Doug Melton, one of the nation鈥檚 top stem cell scientists, juggles research and other programs at his Harvard University lab, which is funded by a half-dozen grants from the National Institutes of Health 鈥 the federal agency that has long been the engine for US biomedical research. But like other senior scientists in the Boston area, he stands to lose some of that funding under a proposed NIH cap on the number of grants it awards to individual labs. (Weisman, 6/7)