[Several men stand near podium preparing to speak.] Jack Whitehead: Now that the chairman is here, we can start. I'm Jack Whitehead, and for the last three years, I've been chairman of the Friends of the National Library of Medicine. And on behalf of the friends, I want to thank you for coming. This afternoon, we're taking an exciting step forward in the field of biotechnology research. Late last year, a new National Center for Biotechnology Information was established at the National Library of Medicine. Today, distinguished officials from the Department of Health and Human Services are here to announce the name of the first director of that center. Biotechnology is perhaps today’s most important area of medical scientific research. A few years ago, biotechnology was rarely heard. Today the field is so crowded, it's becoming nearly impossible to keep up with all of the research and the tremendous flow of data and information being produced. American firms are now spending some two billion dollars a year on biotechnology research, Which is in addition to the billions being spent by not-for-profit laboratories. By the year 2000, it's estimated there will be a 40 billion dollar a year industry in this country. Biotechnology research holds the key to unlocking many of the secrets of who we are, how we get sick, and how we heal. It can open doors to discovering new treatments and new cures for some of the estimated four thousand diseases that afflict us, from cancer to colds, from aging to AIDS. But research is so fast-paced today, we have trouble keeping up with it. With handling and coordinating the results of research, and making it quickly and readily available to researchers and the scientists who need it. That's why this center for biotechnology information is so important. Its mission is to develop and manage information-handling systems, to coordinate the flow of research information on human molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics. It's a tremendous challenge and a tremendous need. Few people understand this need more than Chairman Claude Pepper. He's the architect of legislation creating this center and has led many battles for better health care. It's with great honor, I introduce to you an important friend of ours, Chairman Claude Pepper, to discuss this new addition to the library. Chairman Pepper. [Applause] Senator Claude Pepper: Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman and distinguished Head of the Library of Medicine and the biotechnological center. Ladies and gentlemen. I'm sorry to be a little late. This is one of the most important measures that has ever been enacted by the Congress. It was a recommendation to me from the Library of Medicine, which has done so much to assimilate and to distribute necessary and useful information in the health field. As I understand it today, a rural physician in America could go to a telephone and call the American Library of Medicine and get whatever information that's on storage there in respect to a disease that he didn't know how to diagnose. But it has limitations. And the field of biotechnology is expanding so rapidly, especially in research in respect to the genes, why we deal with millions of billions of little cells in the body, that the resources that we now have are inadequate first to assimilate, and second properly to distribute the necessary information in respect to biotechnology, especially in the field of the genes. I regard that as one of the most productive and promising areas of research in our nation today. They tell us that this little thing that we call the DNA is the architect's plans for the human body. And just as the building is the reflection of the architect's plans, we are the reflection of the state of those DNA things. And if some gene gets out of place, or somehow out of order, out of function or propriety, it may cause all measure of disease and difficulty in the human body. They envisage that we may learn enough in time, for example, the two cases I've been given by the Library of Medicine, a lady almost [?] has been emaciated, beset by the deterioration in her body of constant pneumonia. But with the hope that we have, someday they may be able to plant a healthy gene in the bone marrow of that lady. And she will immediately cease to be a victim of pneumonia and emaciation, and become a normal, healthy human being. Another case they envisage is a young man with lymph cancer. But by insetting a healthy gene into that man's body, they hope they may be able immediately to arrest that cancer. Just think, 400,000 people a year, one of them was my beloved wife, Mildred, are victims of that monster, cancer. This may be the way we'll find the cause and cure of that terrible killer. And maybe others of similar destructiveness to our population. But, if I'm a researcher, and I want to know about a particular area of research, and what's been done already in that field, there's nowhere now that I can find that information because there are no facilities to acquire it, and to assimilate it, and to distribute it. So what we have done by this bill is to set up, in the general Library of Medicine, new computer system that will be adequate to accomplish this higher purpose. To assimilate all the research that's been going on, however voluminous it may be. And to have that research available to all those who need it, and want to use it to further develop the science of biotechnology. So I regard this as one of the monumental achievements of the Congress and the country, and I think it has immeasurable hope and incalculable consequence for our future. So I'm very proud to have been the instrument. The initiative didn't come from me, it came from this great institution, the National Library of Medicine. They told me about it, I thought it was a great idea, and I was proud to introduce and to try to secure the passage of the bill. So I want to compliment the National Library of Medicine, and the Chairman over here, and Francis Humphrey Howard, who has been working with us on this matter, all of them who are involved in this enterprise. I'm very grateful to have had a part in it. And I hope and pray that it's gonna realize the dreams that many of us have cherished for a long, long time by being able to prolong the lives, and promote the health and happiness of human beings. We had a case down in Florida the other day that just scared me very much. A lady, a widow with three children went to our Jackson Memorial Hospital 14 times, tried to get an examination of her breasts because she suspected that maybe she had cancer coming. She couldn't get any attention or any care. The 14th time, some assistant finally examined her. "Yes, you do have cancer." But she died in three weeks. That, surely, is not America. That might be some backwards country in the world. But surely, surely that is not America. And I do hope the consciousness of our country is being quickened to realize how many people in America are dying unnecessarily. How many are suffering from poor health when they could have better health. How many are denied happiness when they could enjoy life better. This may be the "open sesame" to a longer, a healthier, and a happier life. And God grant that it will be for the American people, and indirectly for the people of the world. So I'm proud to have the honor to be associated in this gigantic enterprise with that great institution, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Library of Medicine. Thank you very much. [Applause] Whitehead: Thank you, Chairman Pepper. I think, on behalf of the library, or certainly the friends of the library, we all owe you a great debt, and we wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. I want to acknowledge the presence of Dr. James Wyngaarden, who is the director of the National Institutes of Health, to which the Library of Medicine is part of. Wow, that's a great sentence. Also, introduce to you Dr. Donald Lindberg, who is the director of the National Library of Medicine. I'd like to ask him to say a few words and introduce the new director of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, who will then be available for questions. Thank you. [Applause] Dr. Donald Lindberg: Senator Pepper, Dr. Wyngaarden, Mr. Whitehead. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be with you and Mr. Whitehead said "a few words," and I'll stick to that. The investigation of the workings of the human hereditary system is certainly the most exciting scientific enterprise of the century. And it's a proud thing for the National Library of Medicine to be the information repository for the things that will come from the results of that research. Because I think they, as Mr. Pepper suggested, will help us all. It is logical that it do it because he and the rest of Congress has wisely put these results in the public domain and it is our specialty to-- -- very well because of the selection of David Lipman as the new director and his agreement to serve in our capacity. He is an outstanding investigator in the field-- -- to present to you Dr. Lipman and perhaps you will wish to ask him how he's going to proceed. David... [Applause] Dr. David Lipman: --They struck me. If there's any questions? Female Audience Member: Is this center going to require vast upgrading or improvement in our current computer knowledge to get the job done? And how much would it cost? Dr. Lipman: Well, let me stick with the first part for now. I need more experience for the second part later on. But I think there's a number of kinds of problems that we have to deal with. Some are problems which, in some ways, don't require new basic research. They require a sort of global view of what the informatics’ problems are. Coordinating various efforts that already exist, because there's not been a center, so far. Some of the various efforts have kind of gone in their own directions and we're gonna try to help maintain a central focus so that various database can maintain communication with each other. Other problems, however, will require, I think, real basic research. Biological research, new algorithms, new insights as to what is the language of DNA. I mean, we know about how DNA comes from proteins, but when people talk about, "If you have an amino acid sequence, what does that tell you about the structure and function of the protein?" I think that we can contribute in that area by doing basic research, and sequence structure problems, and so forth. So, when you talked about vast upgrading, I got the sense of hardware problems, you know? Audience Member: Yes, if there's going to be, like, a computer, is it going to be new hardware, new software? Is this technology out there? Or is it something you're going to have to invent? Dr. Lipman: I think that, right now, the hardware is actually improving at such an incredible rate that, several years ago, people talked about, "Geez, we're gonna need special computers for searching databases and so forth." But, just in the time that I've been involved in the field, we've found that the opposite is happening. The price and performance of computers has increased faster than the databases have. Now, with the new human genome effort, I think that's going to change. And we're going to see a tremendous increase in the amount of information. And there will be need for new hardware, new computer technologies. But one of the real focuses in the center is brain [?].. We are going to try to bring, to the Library of Medicine, experts in a variety of areas and achieve a critical mass of "brainware" that we can focus on problems and come up with solutions, which don't necessarily mean, you know, more computers. But I do think that, with time, there will be need for upgrading the kind of facilities that are available. Male Audience Member: How do you plan to address the issues of conflicting standards and software, and the existing genome databases in Europe, for example? Dr. Lipman: Well, that's a problem. There are a few things that are happening that I think will help to change that. One is that, with the human genome project, I think there's a realization by all the existing databases that things are going to have to change. That these are no longer little private research projects, but that cooperation has to become the rule, and not the exception. I think that Dr. Watson, who has been, obviously, worrying about these problems as well, is hoping to develop a very close tie with the center. And I think that the combination of the human genome office and this National Biotech Center at the library will be able to instill a little more respect for standards. Because the NIH, to some extent, will be speaking with one voice on some of these issues. Female Audience Member 2: Have you chosen an advisory board yet? And if so, who's going to be on it? Dr. Lipman: If you wanna make a statement about it. There's— Male Audience Member 2: What's the question? Female Audience Member 2: Have you chosen an advisory board yet? And if so, who's going to be on it? Dr. Donald Lindberg: Yes, well, Doctor Wyngaarden might want to answer the question because he arranged a consulting group before Dr. Watson came. There is a National Genome Advisory... Council? Committee? Committee. And it was decided by the group in Reston, and then, subsequently, by the committee itself that we would like to stay with that body. We would like to establish a subcommittee of that committee, and be advised by them. So that's the matter in which we're working, right at the moment. The members of that subcommittee are: Botstein from Genentech, Heimy Corbinelle from Carnegie-Mellon, and Pierson from Dupont. They have the ability to add additional members, but, at the moment, that is the group which will be overseeing the informational component of the genome project. Audience Member: Mumbles question. Dr. Lindberg: Well. Miss Fordice asked, essentially... Senator Pepper: When will this instrumentality be in operation? Dr. Lindberg: It is in operation. We're at work and we're— Senator Pepper: How much money have we got? Dr. Lindberg: Eight million a year. Senator Pepper: Eight million. Dr. Lindberg: Yeah. Eight out of ten. But that's a plenty good start, and we're working hard. Miss Fordice asked about the relationship of the human genome project with biotechnology. And I suppose that the latter term is the broader one, since it includes both industrial and plant applications, and drug production, and so forth, whereas the human genome project just wants to know the heredity of the human being. But, in fact, that is very much informed by the knowledge from lower forms and other animal forms. So that it would be perhaps the first really big step in biotechnology, would be the human genome project. Dr. Whitehead: If there are no further questions, I think we'll adjourn to the reception. Female Audience Member: I have one more. Dr. Whitehead: One more? Female Audience Member: Has anything like this been tried before, in terms of pooling ongoing research? And do you have any doubts about the willingness of scientists to share this information at an early stage along the line? Dr. Lipman: There was a lot of questions there. When Dr. Lindberg said that we're online, it means that there are people who are already at the library who say they're part of the center and were already working on problems. Currently, we're recruiting people, but there are ongoing problems in terms of integrating the database, integrating physical map databases, and genetic databases and so forth. I think we'll be more operational in the coming months, but... With respect to, "are there models for this level of cooperation that we're talking about," within the biological community, I don't think so. Because people have talked about the sort of small-scale projects that biology has been so far and where is the human genome project is talking about scaling up quite a bit. But I think that the attitudes are changing rapidly as people see the advantages.