Birth Defect Research for Children

I attended the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIESH) council meeting on Thursday. One of the presentations was on the Strategic Planning Process. The Visionary Ideas have now been converted to PDF files which may be accessed at this link http://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/od/strategicplan/index.cfm The Children’s Center concept is in the first section Affected/Susceptible Populations. The ideas are in alphabetical order. Our concept had 115 comments and as I understand it 767 votes at the time of the close of voting.

The next phase will be a meeting in July of 200 participants. Half of these will be scientists. They may discuss the ideas that were submitted on the web or they may add other ideas to the mix.

If you follow down the page on the Strategic Planning Process you will see the opportunities for public comments at various stages in the process. In the final stages, all ideas will be considered and discussed.

I think that the Children’s Center has a chance of being included if there are scientists at NIESH who feel this concept would fit within the framework of the work they are doing. Some of the presentations like the one on Epigenetics/Epigenomics at the recent meeting suggested possibilities particularly in the area of looking for definable markers that would be consistent in all the affected childen of Vietnam veterans.

Thank you again for all you did to support Children’s Center idea. I am on monthly conference calls with members of NIESH so I will let you know anything else I hear about the process.

With best regards,

Betty

Betty Mekdeci
Executive Director
Birth Defect Research for Children
http://www.birthdefects.org
976 Lake Baldwin Lane, Suite 104
Orlando FL 32814
407-895-0802