The idea arose from the perceived need to reinvigorate the atmosphere for clinical research at NIH; it was given form in 1998 when the NIH Clinical Research Revitalization Committee established the Bench-to-Bedside Award, a vehicle to encourage intramural collaboration between basic and clinical researchers at NIH—not just within but across the institutes.

The awards were supported by Clinical Center carryover funds for the first two competitive cycles, after which the institutes agreed to continue the program with their own funds. Projects are funded for one to two years for up to $100,000 a year. For more information, including criteria for research proposals, visit the website.

The Bench-to-Bedside initiative, says CC Director John Gallin, capitalizes on the unique opportunity NIH provides to realize the clinical implications of basic research discoveries—especially in the context of conditions that cross institutes and laboratories. The projects, he notes, have stimulated new clinical protocols and in a few cases have resulted in new therapeutic approaches.

Thus far, 32 Bench-to-Bedside proposals have been funded.

Following are stories on three of them, involving

childhood Batten disease,

breast cancer genomics, and

McCune-Albright syndrome.