To the C. elegans community:
The NCRR (which funds the CGC and much other stuff you need) is in imminent danger of extinction in service of “translational medicine”! (Seehttp://feedback.nih.gov/index.php/category/ncats/ncats-updates/http://feedback.nih.gov/index.php/category/ncats/ncats-updates/ ) The NIH leadership has the bit in its teeth and is rushing headlong into reorganization that will eliminate the NCRR.
I have been in contact with FASEB, ASBMB and AAAS, and there is very strong feeling that the basic-research community must mobilize to defend NCRR. I think it’s fair to say that the C. elegans community would be crippled without the CGC.
An NIH Task Force has been formed to recommend to the SMRB the fate of NCRR programs. This group is taking public feedback at:
http://feedback.nih.gov/index.php/ncats/ncats-comments/#commentformhttp://feedback.nih.gov/index.php/ncats/ncats-comments/#commentform
I think it’s important for the C. elegans community to make its voice heard in this matter.
TIME IS SHORT. THIS IS URGENT!! THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS.
Please take the trouble to post even a brief explanation of why the CGC is indispensable. The Task Force recommendations on NCRR programs will be formulated SOON, and reported officially in February.
thanks, and with apologies for the ‘alphabet soup’,
Lew
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Dr. Lewis Jacobson
Professor of Biological Sciences
Univ. of Pittsburgh