ented medical education to meet a serious shortage in U.S. health care. As a consequence of the report's main thesis, basic science instruction in many medical schools is recommended removed to nearby "main university" campuses as a cost reducing measure. In a further curriculum reform, the report urges "tying more closely together basic science and clinical instruction—they now too often stand as unrelated worlds." The commission, headed by renowned educator Dr. Clark Kerr, still believes in vigorous biomedical research as an integral component of medical education and would not change some schools which have achieved superior departments in basic science. However, the commission recommends staying with the current level of federal support for medical school research as a percentage of the gross national product. This figure is now 0.042% or $350 million per year —one fourth of federal support for health research. The report recommends that federal research support cover the full cost of research with no matching requirements from the institutions. In the controversial area of institutional (as opposed to individual) grants, the report approves from 10 to 25% of the new type of grant to the institution with no specific target project. On goals of research in medical schools, the report finds new directions desirable. "Funds should be made available to support research on methods of achieving greater efficiency in health manpower education and in the delivery of health care as well as for biomedical research," the report says. Degrees in medical schools should reflect this diversity in research as well as diversity in professional aims of students, the commission states. The report suggests a degree between the A.B. and M.D. to give students a decision point at which they can go into clinical or research careers. In a move possibly favoring future employment of biochemists, the report's model of future medical education includes nine recommended new university health science centers.
CHEMICAL MUTAGENS:
More Testing Needed In the West Auditorium of the State Department Building in Washington some 350 scientists gathered last week for a three-day meeting on chemical mutagens. The conference, sponsored by the Drug Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council and four other organizations, drew a wide array of
Dr. James Crow with visiting Italian scientist Laura Sgaramella "I try to steer a sensible course between complacency and panic"
academic, industrial, and government researchers from the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Alexander Hollaender, a biophysicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and cochairman of the meeting's planning committee, told C&EN that one of the main goals of the conference was to familiarize industrial, academic, and other scientists with the latest methods of determining the possible ability of drugs and other chemicals to cause genetic mutations. At the moment, one vexing problem is that more man 25 different methods are available for determining the mutagenicity of chemicals. What is needed, says Dr. Hollaender, is a careful appraisal of these methods and a determination of what are the most meaningful tests—meaningful in the sense that they can suggest whether a chemical may be mutagenic in man, even though it is tested only in lower organisms. Currently, a committee of the Environmental Mutagen Society is evaluating these tests for the purpose of recommending not only the three best tests but also the detailed procedures for carrying them out. One reason for insisting on three specific tests is to keep the amount of laboratory work required within practical limits (25 different tests would, of course, be unreasonable). Another purpose is to standardize such testing so that the results from different laboratories can be reliably compared. Another purpose is to eliminate or at least discourage the use of less satisfactory test methods.
At a press conference immediately before the meeting, Dr. James F. Crow, a University of Wisconsin geneticist, said that he would favor banning most chemicals found to be significantly mutagenic in lower organisms, particularly if these chemicals can be replaced by others that are safe and equally effective and if these compounds are widely used in substantial quantities, particularly by younger people. On the other hand, if a mutagenic chemical is a valuable drug for treating cancer and is used almost entirely in patients beyond child-bearing age, he would not prohibit its use. Like many others at the conference, Dr. Crow stressed the need for far greater screening of chemicals as possible mutagens. Recognizing that, in some quarters in recent years, there has been apprehension about certain chemicals alleged to be mutagenic in man, Dr. Crow observes, "I try to steer a sensible course between complacency and panic."
LAB CHEMICALS:
Steady Market Growth Despite cutbacks in budgets for government research laboratories, and despite paring of federal support of academic research, the market for laboratory chemicals will grow steadily through the 1970's. This prognosis is by David S. Alcorn, executive vice president of J. T. Baker Chemical Co. He bases his outlook on a healthy NOV. 9f 1970 C&EN
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