Call your senators today and urge them to attend this exciting event! The briefing will discuss how funding for medical research at NIH can be used to more quickly create new therapies for patients and save lives. The NIH is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research. Speakers will also discuss the lessons learned from the cystic fibrosis community’s successes in medical research that can map the way for other diseases.

Dr. Collins, a distinguished geneticist who led the international effort to map the human genome, is the co-discoverer of the cystic fibrosis gene.

Did you know that May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month?

May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month. You can help keep your members of Congress informed about the needs of people with cystic fibrosis by urging them to attend the Foundation’s congressional briefing on Thursday, May 20.

Who:

• Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director, National Institutes of Health
• Senators Richard J. Durbin and Richard C. Shelby
• Robert J. Beall, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
• Moderator: Margaret Anderson, Executive Director, FasterCures / The Center
  for Accelerating Medical Solutions

When: Thurs., May 20, 2010, 10 a.m. – 11 a.m.

Where: Dirksen Senate Office Building, G-11

Why: “The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has shown the way, has lit up the path…and what’s been learned from CF can be extrapolated, generalized, to hundreds of other diseases,” Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health

The past few decades have brought exciting scientific breakthroughs necessary to understand, diagnose, and treat many diseases. However, the ability to translate exciting advancements into treatments that can help patients severely lags behind the pace of innovation.

On average, it takes 15 years to turn a scientific discovery into a viable therapy. For the millions of Americans who live with chronic and fatal diseases, this is simply too long to wait.

Fifty years ago, people with cystic fibrosis did not live long enough to attend grade school, but today, there are more than 30 drugs in a CF drug development pipeline and the median life expectancy for someone with the disease is 37 years.

NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins, Dr. Robert J. Beall of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Margaret Anderson of Faster Cures will address:

• What lessons can be learned from the cystic fibrosis successes that can map the way for other diseases?
• How can federal investment at the NIH and other agencies be leveraged to answer important scientific questions in a way that accelerates the discovery and development of medical solutions for deadly and debilitating diseases?
• How can we bridge the “Valley of Death” between basic science discoveries and the creation of new therapies for patients?