Diary Prequel Package — page 235

May 5, 2010 - At his request, had meeting in my office with J. Craig Venter. He wanted to brief me and get my advice on how to handle the rollout of his upcoming Science paper on Synthetic Biology. He has made a major advance in synthesizing from the sequence in a computer the 1.1 million base pairs of Mycoplasma mycoides and inserted it into a Mycoplasma capricolum bacteria. The synthetic mycoides then began to code for the proteins of the bacterial cell wall so that after several replications there was a bacteria with a synthetic genome and all of the protein coded for by the synthetic genome, thus a synthetic cell. I advised him to be very transparent at this and present it to the NAS, the OSTP, among others. He has lined up some embargoed press in anticipation of the release next week of the paper on May 13. He very much wanted me to do heavy press with him likely to add a greater degree of credibility to it as well as because I explain science so well. From today until the House Hearing on May 27, HHS and the White House completely muzzled me for ridiculous reasons. Despite the fact that John Holdren submitted my name to the WH as the best person to do TV, radio and print, the WH muzzled all government comment on this. They were "afraid to elevate it publicly by having well-known government figures speak about it since they did not want flack from the "right" that the government was involved in "creating" life. Unbelievable!! Rick Weiss who is communications director for OSTP is extremely distraught about the muzzling. Of note, this has happened to me throughout the H1N1 flu pandemic. Apparently, besides Jenny Backus, more importantly, David Pfeiffer at the White House is now behind the muzzling. May 6, 2010 - We have been pushing the issue of more resources and activity on Neglected tropical Diseases (NTDs) here at NIAID. Peter Hotez from GW has been a leader in this field. Recently, Zeke Emanuel at OMB has been pushing it as part of the POTUS Global Health Initiative (GHI). Zeke called a meeting of all of the players in the field including me, Hotez, Eric Goosby, Raj Shah (Head of USAID), Raj's assistant Amy Batson and many others to discuss the future agenda. The meeting involved research, policy, implementation. NIAID will sponsor a purely scientific meeting later in the year (Dec., 2010). May 7, 2010 - "Big Think" meeting at the Natcher Building of Outside consultants to discuss 3 of Francis's pillars: 1) high throughput technology; 2) Translational Research; 3) Research involved in enhancing health care reform. All day. Francis Collins clearly is trying to steer the NIH towards his themes. "Everybody wants to be somebody." The meeting was geared to figure out how to spend Common Fund Money and how to move more towards translational research. Actually a good meeting. Francis is smart, very hard working, but it is all about Francis. May 13, 2010 - Gave Keynote at the NIAF Public policy Forum at the Rayburn Building. Typical of similar Italian functions. Again, continual activity at WH with MCM and Heidi. May 14, 2010 - Phenomenal reception/dinner at the Academy of Achievement on 16th Street, N.W. hosted by Wayne and Catherine Reynolds. Usual stars of DC were there: Eric Holder, media people, Gen. James Jones, Bob Barnett, etc., etc. It was a Tribute to