1. The Landscape of NHLBI Investment in Plaque Vulnerability Research
CRT2017
February 19, 2017
The Landscape of NHLBI Investment in Plaque Vulnerability Research
Zorina Galis, Ph.D.
Chief, Vascular Biology and Hypertension Branch
Division of Cardiovascular Sciences
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
On behalf of NHLBI Team members:
Jerome Fleg, MD, Michelle Olive, PhD, Yves Rosenberg, MD, Narasimhan Danthi, PhD, and Jue Chen, PhD

2. Disclosure Statement of Financial Interest
Within the past 12 months, I or my spouse/partner have had a financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with the organization(s) listed below.
Affiliation/Financial Relationship
Company
None

3. Evolution of the “Vulnerable Plaque” Concept
Pathological/Clinical puzzle
“Back to the bench”
Fleiner et al., 2004
Targeted clinical observations
New concepts
“Vulnerable Plaque”
“Vulnerable shoulder”
New molecular mechanisms
New animal models
“Back to the bedside”
Clinical associations
New concepts “Vulnerable Patient”
New clinical diagnosis/management

4. Questions, Data Sources and Methods
Overall Vulnerable Plaque (VP) research landscape:
Who are the main funders of VP research, outside/inside NIH?
What types of VP research was funded?
What are the trends?
Data and methods
Sources of information: NIH RePORT for NIH grants, Federal RePORTER for other US government grants, and UberResearch for global research grants
Data: FY
Multiple search terms (13) for VP, initial query results were curated by two independent reviewers

5. All Vulnerable Plaque (VP) Projects by Funding Source
World-wide VP Projects
Among NIH-funded VP Projects
The six non-NIH funded US grants were funded by VA. The next slide has a pie chart showing the breakdown of foreign countries that funded the 30 nonUS projects.
Among the 145 NIH VP projects, seven were linked to clinical studies registered in CTG with NCT #. Three of the seven studies were in the NCT search and four were not.

6. NIH investment in VP research (FY2005-2015)

7. NIH VP Awards by Main Research Subject Used
Data source: NIH RePORT

8. Type of VP Clinical Research
clinicaltrials.gov
Six studies are not in the NIH VP initial query list. Three studies are in the NIH nonVP project list and two studies are in the confirmed NIH VP list.
Self-report data (“observational/interventional”)

9. All Funders of VP Clinical Research clinicaltrials.gov
Six studies are not in the NIH VP initial query list. Three studies are in the NIH nonVP project list and two studies are in the confirmed NIH VP list.

10. VP research: Moving towards translation
Publications derived from NIH-funded VP awards
( )
Translational Score= 0-1
1369 publications associated with the NIH VP grants were analyzed using the iTrans program.

11. Trends In NIH VP Portfolio (NIH Itrans) and Translational Heat Map of the VP Field
Average Mol/cell Score
Average Animal Score
Average Human Score
Heat map
Human
Mol/Cell
Animal
Human
Mol/Cell
Animal
Human
Mol/Cell
Animal

12. Questions?

14. VP projects funded by foreign countries
Data source: UberResearch
13 search terms were used and query results were curated by two staff
Limited by the collection in UberResearch database

15. NIH investment in VP research (FY2005-2015)

16. NIH investment in VP research (FY2005-2015)

17. Trends in NIH VP Research Funding