News Release

Monday, April 2, 2007

Barbara Alving Named Director of NIH’s National Center for Research Resources

NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. has named Barbara Alving, M.D. to be the director of the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). As Acting Director of NCRR, Alving has overseen the launch of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program — a new national consortium of academic health centers that will transform the conduct of clinical and translational research to ensure that biomedical discoveries are rapidly translated into prevention strategies and clinical treatments for rare and common diseases.

“I am honored to lead NCRR at such a critical time and welcome the opportunity to work with my very talented and dedicated colleagues in NCRR as we capitalize on NCRR’s long standing investment in clinical and translational science to enrich the CTSA program,” Dr. Alving said. “I have been impressed by the variety and depth of the research that NCRR-funded investigators are conducting and the contributions NCRR makes to the entire biomedical research community. These investigators are fueling advances in clinical care by developing pre-clinical models, new technologies in imaging, and new informatics systems, which are critical to transforming clinical and translational research.”“Dr. Alving has demonstrated exceptional leadership in the recent efforts of the NIH to energize the discipline of clinical and translational research across the nation,” said Dr. Zerhouni. “The CTSA program marks the first systemic change in clinical research in 50 years and is a critical component of how we will effectively re-engineer the clinical research enterprise, including training the next generation of researchers. It will be with Dr. Alving’s vision, creativity, and leadership that we will be able to maximize our investment in the CTSA consortium, ensure that benefits extend to the greater research community, and that new medical advances are delivered to the people who need them.”

The NCRR budget of greater than $1 billion will enable investigators throughout the country to conduct research that ranges from basic and clinical projects to community outreach and education. NCRR funding provides training and research opportunities at minority institutions and colleges, as well as in academic centers located in states that are challenged by distance and low or often rural populations.

A native of Indiana and a graduate of Purdue University, Dr. Alving earned her medical degree — cum laude — from Georgetown University School of Medicine, where she also served as an intern in internal medicine. She completed her residency training, followed by a research fellowship in hematology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She began her research career as a Public Health Officer in the Division of Blood and Blood Products at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the NIH campus. Dr. Alving then joined the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, where she served at the rank of colonel as the Chief of the Department of Hematology and Vascular Biology. In 1997, Dr. Alving became the Chief of the Section of Hematology and Oncology at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington D.C. In 1999, she joined the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) as the Director of the Division of Blood Diseases and Resources. She then became the NHLBI Deputy Director and Acting Director while also serving as the Director of the Women's Health Initiative (2002-2006). In 2005, Dr. Zerhouni tapped her to be the Acting Director of NCRR.

A Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Dr. Alving is also a Master in the American College of Physicians, a former member of the subcommittee on Hematology of the American Board of Internal Medicine, and a previous member of the FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee. Before joining NIH, she served on the Hematology Study Section for NIH and was a member of the NHLBI Clinical Trials Review Committee. She currently serves the NIH Director as the official NIH liaison for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and is a member of the Advisory Board for Clinical Research at the NIH Clinical Center.

She is a recipient of the American Society of Hematology award for outstanding service and also received a Commendable Service Award from the FDA for her work on hypotensive agents in albumin products. Her military honors include the U.S. Legion of Merit, awarded by the U.S. Army, for work that improved the care of soldiers in combat.

She is a co-inventor on two patents, has edited three books, and has published more than 100 papers in the areas of thrombosis and hemostasis.

NCRR provides laboratory scientists and clinical researchers with the environments and tools they need to understand, detect, treat, and prevent a wide range of diseases. Central to this effort, NCRR leads the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program — a national consortium of academic health centers that will transform the conduct of clinical and translational research to ensure that biomedical discoveries are rapidly translated into prevention strategies and clinical treatments for rare and common diseases. With NCRR support, scientists make biomedical discoveries, translate these findings to animal-based studies, and then apply them to patient-oriented research. Through the CTSA consortium and other collaborations and networks, NCRR connects researchers with one another, and with patients and communities across the nation. These connections bring together innovative research teams and the power of shared resources, multiplying the opportunities to improve human health. For more information, visit www.ncrr.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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