At the September meeting of the NIGMS Advisory Council, I delivered the Institute’s response to the recommendations of the Working Group on Sepsis. For more information, you can watch the videocast of the presentation.

Watch the sepsis presentation at the September Advisory Council meeting.

As a funding institute, we want to rebalance our research portfolio to invest in sepsis in more targeted, strategic ways. Planned efforts include:

1. Placing greater emphasis on patient-derived materials (“bedside to bench”)
2. Developing a mechanistic understanding in patients to categorize sepsis endotypes
3. Promoting discovery science as a foundation for future clinical studies
4. Encouraging new approaches for sepsis research, including:
   • Computational and data sciences
   • Novel research organisms as models for humans
   • Technology development programs
5. De-emphasizing support in some areas, including:
   • Use of rodent models, except where uniquely well justified
   • Large-scale clinical trials, in order to prioritize fundamental basic research

Accordingly, we have published two NIH Guide notices:

• Notice of Information: NIGMS Priorities for Sepsis Research (NOT-GM-19-054)
• Request for Information (RFI): Strategies to Support Acquisition and Use of Biospecimens for Research on Sepsis in Humans (NOT-GM-19-057) (Responses are due by November 15, 2019)

NIGMS especially wants to stimulate interest in sepsis research by investigators who may not have been aware of the challenges of identifying and treating sepsis patients.

Please help us spread the word.