AAI Responds to Request for Information from the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health on Its NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Autoimmune Disease Research
AAI recently submitted comments to the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health in response to its Request for Information (RFI): “Inviting Input on an NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Autoimmune Disease Research.” NIH sought feedback on research areas that would benefit from multidisciplinary collaborations, ways to advance collaborative and innovative areas of research, opportunities to improve outcomes for all populations living with autoimmune disease(s), and suggestions for how NIH can support cross-cutting research in this area. In its comments, AAI expresses strong support for efforts to coordinate autoimmune disease research across NIH and to foster cross-cutting collaborations to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes for those living with autoimmune diseases.
AAI urges NIH to create concrete funding opportunities for “collaborations between investigators from fundamental biology to translational and clinical research to epidemiology, and utilize data science, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.” AAI believes that NIH should continue to prioritize research on, among other things, understanding why and how central and peripheral tolerance breakdown in autoimmune disease, particularly in women (as they represent the great majority of patients) and to elucidate the mechanisms of individual disease as well as the common aspects underlying autoimmunity. Research and clinical trial design, as well as data analysis, should prioritize inclusion and consideration of sex, ancestry, gender, demographics, social determinants of health, and factors related to ease of participation. NIH should also consider initiatives that bring awareness, education, and access to accurate diagnoses, medical care (including mental health care), treatment options and specialists, in particular to populations with health disparities, rare diseases, and those historically underrepresented, in order to help improve outcomes for individuals living with autoimmune disease.
Read the Comments Here
Watch the Recent AAI Webinar on Funding Opportunities at ARPA-H
On November 9, AAI hosted a webinar entitled, “ARPA-H: Funding Opportunities of Immunologists.” The event, which was chaired and moderated by AAI Committee on Public Affairs member Cherié Butts, Ph.D., featured compelling remarks by:
Susan Monarez, Ph.D., Deputy Director, ARPA-H
Paul de Figueiredo, Ph.D., NextGen Precision Health Endowed Professor, University of Missouri
Watch the Recording Here
AAI Issues Statement Expressing Concern about Large Cuts to Biomedical Research in House Spending Bill
AAI Committee on Public Affairs Chair Gretchen Diehl, Ph.D., recently issued a statement articulating some of AAI’s concerns with the fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations bill approved by the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee on July 14. The bill would cut funding for the National Institutes of Health by $3.8 billion, including a $1.5 billion cut to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It also cuts the budget of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) by $1 billion. The statement explains AAI’s deep disappointment with these cuts and “urges bipartisan action in Congress to prioritize investment in NIH’s lifesaving scientific research.”
The Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee is expected to consider its version of the FY 2024 Labor-HHS bill in late July.