Michael F. Chiang
Director, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health
All opinions are my own
- NIH R50 funding opportunity to provide salary support for Research Software Engineers who work on developing or disseminating biomedical-related software, tools, or algorithms. Next deadline is Weds 6/4/2025. Details: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
- To people interested in technologies such as organoids, computational models, real-world data (and others): NIH is announcing a new initiative to expand innovative, human-based science in research. Aligns with FDA initiative to reduce testing in animals. Details: www.nih.gov/news-events/...
- NIH is sponsoring a $1M Data Sharing Index ("S-Index") Challenge to develop a metric for assessing how effectively researchers share useful data. Can use to build more culture of open/team science. Webinar coming up (Tues 1/28/25, 12pm ET): bit.ly/4h8vgrs More info about Challenge: bit.ly/4abRypX
- Here's a website that describes the NIH "s-index challenge" to promote data sharing by developing a robust metric to identify exemplary data sharers. National Eye Institute is excited lead a large group of participating NIH institutes (shown on website). www.freelancer.com/contest/NIH-...
- Last year, the National Eye Institute held a workshop on extracellular vesicles for vision research (needs, gaps, opportunities). Here's a white paper that summarizes key findings from that workshop: isevjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
- There is a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy. This is based on the premise that increasing access to publications resulting from NIH funding offers many benefits to the scientific community as well as the public. Details: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
- Dry eye disease is very common and can be extremely frustrating for people, yet there are surprisingly few FDA-approved drug options. Here's a video about an eye-on-a-chip model that creates a potential experimental drug testing platform (NEI-funded): www.youtube.com/watch?si=LfU...
- There is planning at NIH to inform a potential major Common Fund program called "Precision Medicine with AI: Integrating Imaging with Multimodal Data (PRIMED-AI)". If interested: virtual strategic planning workshop (3/11-12/2025). Free registration. Details: commonfund.nih.gov/potential-pr...
- Here's an amazing multimodal dataset optimized for #AI research in type 2 #diabetes (clinical/EHR, imaging, blood, urine, questionnaires, activity & continuous glucose monitoring, environmental data, more...). @natureportfolio.bsky.social, funded by NIH Bridge2AI: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
- Interesting article from The Scientist about careers in science policy. I've loved working with so many people like this at NIH! www.the-scientist.com/what-does-a-...
- Today, Marla Feller (@mfeller.bsky.social) from UC-Berkeley delivered the Sayer Vision Research Lecture at NIH. Beautiful talk about visual neuroscience & development entitled "Riding the retinal wave through visual system development".
- Quick story from @nypost.com.web.brid.gy a NYC traffic light that was installed upside-down. Quotes Bevil Conway from National Eye Institute about potential confusion for people with red-green color blindness... nypost.com/2024/12/07/u...
- Here are some photos of National Eye Institute staff from our recent Director's Awards Ceremony. Truly privileged to work with this amazing group of people!
- Superb meeting hosted by @elsevierconnect.bsky.social on "Tomorrow Today in Research: Perspectives from Government, Industry, Academia" Fascinating discussions with extremely thoughtful & accomplished speakers about how we can create better research culture for societal impact of work.
- If you haven't heard: @arpa-h.bsky.social has announced teams that will be working to enable whole-eye transplantation to restore vision for the blind & visually impaired. A bold goal! Details: arpa-h.gov/news-and-eve...
- Incredible AI for Science meeting hosted by @deep-mind.bsky.social and @royalsociety.bsky.social: Great talks on impact & future directions in health, science, sustainability by Demis Hassabis, John Jumper, Jennifer Doudna, Tom Friedman, @erictopol.bsky.social, Hannah Fry, more. Many ideas...!
- Data sharing is a key feature of 21st-century science, yet researchers often feel disincentivized to share with others. There is a new NIH "s-index challenge" to address this gap. Here's an article from @thetransmitter.bsky.social about it: www.thetransmitter.org/open-neurosc...
- Was only at the AMIA 2024 meeting for 2 days, but had a chance to see some old colleagues & friends from the biomedical #informatics community. Pics from American College of Medical Informatics induction (Katie Zhu). @ted-shortliffe.bsky.social @jamescimino.bsky.social @vimla-patel.bsky.social
- Cerebral/cortical visual impairment (CVI) has become a leading cause of visual impairment among children in the US. Here's a LinkedIn article on the topic that references recent publications in Ophthalmology and Pediatrics. www.linkedin.com/posts/chiang...
