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(Circulation. 2002;106:162.)
© 2002 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

The SPARK That Ignited a New Era of Research

Claude Lenfant, MD

From the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Md.

Correspondence to Claude Lenfant, MD, Dept of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892. E-mail lenfantc@nhlbi.nih.gov

Key Words: Editorials • genetics • cardiovascular diseases

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

In the spring of 1998, as members of both the House and Senate were signaling their interest in increasing National Institutes of Health (NIH) appropriations substantially over the next several years, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) convened the "SPARK Working Group, " a panel of prominent scientists, to identify extraordinary opportunities that should be funded with any significant increase in Institute resources.

With that objective in mind, the SPARK group set to work and ultimately identified four broad areas of scientific opportunity, as well as a number of enabling approaches. The areas are (1) Functional Genomics, (2) Gene-Gene and Gene-Environment Interactions, (3) Tissuegenesis/Organogenesis, and (4) Immunobiology. (See http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/funding/fromdir/sparkweb.htm for a copy of the SPARK report.)

As the research community is well aware, the Congress did its part. The NHLBI has already received four substantial increases in its budget and, if the President’s current budget proposal for fiscal year 2003 is approved by the Congress, the NIH budget will be double what it was in 1998.

The purpose of this editorial is to demonstrate that the Institute, in partnership with the community it serves, did its part, as well. Although the innovative programs developed in response to the SPARK report are too numerous to describe in detail, a few of the major ones are highlighted herein. They are testimony to the extraordinary vision of the SPARK participants—much of the focus of what they recommended and what was, in turn, implemented was on developing resources that would enable the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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