NEWS OF THE WEEK
N IH (BOT H)
NIH STRENGTHENS CONFLICT RULES ETHICS: New reporting requirements
are expected to enhance public trust in biomedical research
T
Collins
Rockey
HE NATIONAL INSTITUTES of Health is pro-
posing to cut in half the threshold for reporting financial ties to industry by extramural researchers. The agency has been under pressure from Congress and the Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services to strengthen such financial conflict-of-interest rules for many years. The changes, which were published in the May 21 Federal Register, lower the threshold for disclosure of financial interests from $10,000 to $5,000 and require institutions to make public such disclosures when a conflict exists. As a result, NIH grantees who receive more than $5,000 in a one-year period from industry payments or equity interests would be required to disclose that financial information to their institutions. NIH considered lowering the threshold even further, but “we were extraordinarily concerned about the
SELECTIVE CO OXIDATION CATALYSIS: Low-coordination iron
sites at interface between oxide and metal drive the conversion
SCIENCE
L
OW-COORDINATION iron atoms located along
the edges of specially prepared iron oxide crystals supported on platinum function as catalytically active sites for carbon monoxide oxidation, according to a study conducted in China (Science 2010, 328, 1141). The ACTIVE SITE The interface between investigation identifies a particles of iron oxide (Fe is purple and O general principle for designing is orange) and platinum (blue) contains new types of metal oxide cataactive sites that dissociate oxygen lysts that might be sufficiently and mediate CO selective and durable for use in oxidation. fuel cells and other industrial applications. Catalysts based on iron species in low-coordination (or “coordinatively unsaturated”) bonding configurations are known to play key roles in solution-phase and enzymemediated oxidation reactions. WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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administrative costs associated with the disclosure of a negligible financial interest,” NIH’s Acting Deputy Director for Extramural Research Sally J. Rockey noted during a May 20 press conference. “We determined that the cost would probably outweigh the intended benefit.” Another change requires each institution to determine when a financial conflict exists and to disclose the financial conflicts of its faculty on a public website. Under existing regulations, researchers determine when they have a financial conflict and institutions are not required to publicly reveal such conflicts. The proposed rules “may provide some burden to the investigator and to the institutions in terms of additional reporting requirements,” NIH Director Francis S. Collins acknowledged. But they are essential for “obtaining and maintaining the public trust in the integrity of the scientific enterprise,” he said. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who wants medical researchers to disclose payments from drug companies, called the proposal “a step in the right direction.” Likewise, the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents accredited medical schools, said the changes are a “significant milestone” on the path to “preserving the public’s trust and the integrity of research.” NIH is accepting public comments on the proposed changes until July 20 and expects to release its final rule this summer.—BRITT ERICKSON
In those systems, the reactive centers tend to be pinned in place by proteins or various ligands. Similar types of iron assemblies could form the heart of highly active solid-phase catalysts but have been difficult to prepare. Now, scientists at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics have shown that low-coordination iron species can be synthesized reproducibly along the periphery of nanosized islands of oxygen-deficient FeO supported on platinum. Furthermore, the team, which includes Qiang Fu, Wei-Xue Li, and Xinhe Bao, has shown that these reactive centers are stabilized at the interface between the oxide and the metal because of strong oxide-metal interactions. To evaluate the ferrous oxide’s utility in catalysis, the researchers prepared a series of samples, including industrial-style silica-supported FeO-Pt nanoparticles, and tested them for their ability to oxidize CO in the presence of hydrogen. This preferential oxidation (or PROX reaction) is a critical step in ridding hydrogen of low levels of CO, a common contaminant that readily poisons fuel-cell catalysts. On the basis of control tests, including a 1,000-hour fuel-cell test run, the team reports that its new catalysts are highly active, durable, and selective for CO oxidation. “These results—nearly 100% conversion with 100% CO selectivity—are truly impressive,” says Charles H. F. Peden of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “Equally impressive are the detailed surface science and computational studies that convincingly rationalize these new PROX catalysis results.”—MITCH JACOBY
MAY 3 1 , 2010
