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PDCC Minutes - March 1, 2007

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Building 31, Room 8A28
2:00 - 3:30p.m.

LIST OF ATTENDEES:

Lana Shekim, NIDCD
Tony Phelps, NIA
Bill Goldberg, VA
Nancy Pearson, NCCAM
Audrey Penn, NINDS
Story Landis, NINDS
Katrina Gwinn, NINDS
Melinda Kelley, NINDS
Diane Murphy, NINDS
Margaret Sutherland, NINDS
Jim Battey, NIDCD
Patricia Grady, NINR
Rosemarie Filart, NCRR (via telephone)
Cindy Lawler, NIEHS (via telephone)
Annette Kirshner, NIEHS (via telephone)

Roundtable introductions:

(Murphy) - The meeting began with Roundtable introductions.

General Roundtable discussion:

(Murphy) Diane reminded the group that the PD Plan is up on the web and was well received by the community. According to our language, we need to have a planning meeting every two years; this year the PD Plan will be an add-on session to the Udall Meeting on September 25-27, 2007.

Dr. Landis expressed that we may benefit best by having focused topics at these smaller planning meetings. Included this year will be the challenges of how to better run clinical trials, find biomarkers, etc. Amy Comstock (PAN) thought these were acceptable topics and Dr. Landis will follow up with her in writing.

(Murphy) Diane reminded the group of the overall Blueprint efforts thus far; the 4 RFAs, including biomarkers and therapy delivery, will be reviewed in the next several weeks.

(Murphy) - in regards to imaging, we are not likely to focus on that for the planning meeting. Imaging has come up in regards to DBS.

Dr. Penn asked about consortium studies? Has anything happened?

(Gwinn) - The Grisell Lopez and Mark Hallett collaboration was just brought to the IRB last week. We don't have enough at-risk people yet to follow. There are also large mendelian families with known genes. The repository has banked over 2,500 PD samples and 4,300 controls. More than two-thirds is available for use and larger studies are planned.

(Murphy) - We are also hoping to have the Postcept cohort added to the repository. We want to follow them in PD-DOC longitudinally.

Updates on Meetings, Initiatives, etc. on PD:

(Shekim/NIDCD) - PI's are working now in the area of DBS with speech and swallowing issues.

(Pearson/NCCAM) - A P30 Center at Emory is in a no-cost extension. They have a several satellite R01's; mostly secondary projects on sleep, exercise and other smaller projects.

(Phelps/NIA) - NIA is in the 23rd year of the Alzheimer's centers. NACC is still working on a new data module for lewy body dementia/vascular dementia diseases.

(Penn/NINDS) - The R&P cluster and Joe Pancrazio are interested in certifying those who do DBS. Joe is planning a meeting on the 30th to discuss this with neurosurgeons, and Dr. Rezai will give a DBS talk on the 29th. The issue of certification for DBS originated with Carol Walton (PD Alliance). Joe Pancrazio is trying to get someone in the community to apply for an R25 grant.

(Goldberg/DVA) - The PD program announcement is still out with no termination date. It will likely stay open until they get into electronic submission. The RFA is focused on ALS, PD and AD. The PADRECS are funded now out of the clinical side. (The PADRECS are the sites for the DBS clinical trials.) All VA grants will be in the CRISP database when we go live for everyone to utilize.

(Grady/NINR) - The area of sleep is important in conjunction with PD in NINR. Melatonin is a drug of interest now.

(Filart/NCRR) - NCRR is looking into integration of translational research with NDG/PD studies. Dr. Filart is co-chairing the translational committee for CTSAs. Every specialty voice will be heard and treated equitably. CTSA's are looking at inter-disciplinary research. This is a work in progress, but they want to bring clinical and translational research to the table. A pediatric group will need to be represented in the CTSA awards.

(Lawler/NIEHS) - The P01 FOA on neurodegeneration/environment is in ENS. It will include integrated projects and have more flexibility than previous centers. Applications are due in the middle of the Summer for FY08 funding. It is open to multiple NDG diseases and the hope is they will get enough highly meritorious applications. $4 M total is set aside and NIA is contributing $500K. There will be less than $1M total per center. Overlap can be addressed with Udalls and other P01s.

(Murphy/NINDS) - The newest Udall center is at the U. of Pennsylvania (John Trojanowski). It will have 4 projects, including 2 clinical components on cognitive issues in PD. It's going to be a good center with an excellent brain bank. NINDS would like to have only one receipt date/year for Udall renewals and new grant applications.

(Kelley/NINDS) - There is an ongoing formal Udall evaluation being done by Booz-Allen Hamilton. This evaluation was requested by the PD people and also the Council. They will submit an analysis report to a panel of eleven and will meet in June 2007. This data will be available in September 2007 for Council.

(Murphy/NINDS) - If there are no other questions/concerns, the meeting is adjourned.

Last updated March 19, 2007