[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 151 (Monday, October 28, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S7571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       NATIONAL CENTER FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY INFORMATION ANNIVERSARY

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise to recognize the 25th anniversary 
of the National Center for Biotechnology Information--NCBI--part of the 
National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, 
America's world-renowned research institution in Bethesda, MD.
  The late Senator Claude Pepper, for whom a major building on the NIH 
campus is named, authored six separate laws creating individual 
institutes at NIH. In 1987, while a Member of the House of 
Representatives and chairman of the Select Committee on Aging's 
Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care, Pepper introduced H.R. 393, 
the National Biotechnology Information Act, which established the NCBI. 
At a March 1987 hearing on H.R. 393, Pepper explained that ``we are 
dealing with nothing less than the mystery of human life and the 
unfolding scroll of knowledge, seeking to penetrate that mystery, which 
is life itself.'' He noted that his bill was intended ``to facilitate 
the development of advanced computer and communication systems that 
will make it possible for the vast expanding knowledge of the gene to 
be assimilated into a computer system and made available for 
distribution to researchers and to people generally all over the 
World.''
  Soon thereafter, Congress embraced the importance of the 
biotechnology field, recognized the pressing need to harness the large 
volume of data emanating from the genetic revolution in science, and 
endorsed the establishment of NCBI to manage this valuable resource for 
the benefit of human health. With strong bipartisan support in 
Congress, Pepper's bill was enacted as part of Senator Ted Kennedy's 
comprehensive measure, the Health Omnibus Extension Programs of 1988, 
on November 4, 1988.
  Today, biomedical research encompassing genomic and genetic knowledge 
is a major driver of medical progress. The foresight of Congress in 
establishing the NCBI, combined with the innovative leadership of 
Director Dr. David Lipman and the expertise of the agency's dedicated 
staff, has led to the emergence of an impressive national resource for 
molecular biology information. In June of this year, Dr. Lipman was 
honored by the White House with the ``Open Science'' Champions of 
Change Award for his work at NCBI. By organizing and integrating 
genomic data for developing diagnostic and clinical applications, the 
Center serves as a bridge from research to the medical community. Each 
day, more than 3 million users access NCBI's 40 interlinked genomic and 
bibliographic databases and download more than 30 terabytes of data.
  I am proud that Congress has continued to support funding for the 
NCBI over the past 25 years. Recently, by requiring that the results of 
NIH-funded research be made public through the Center's PubMed Central 
Database, Congress has opened to everyone the full text of published 
journal articles that are essential to advancing scientific research 
and public health.
  The biomedical research funded by the NIH provides knowledge 
essential to combat debilitating diseases, and continuing this research 
is dependent on the resources and tools that NCBI has developed so 
successfully for the benefit of the biomedical community. As NIH 
Director Francis Collins has noted, we are entering an era of precision 
medicine in which a patient's genetic makeup may determine the exact 
treatment that is provided. Surely, the NCBI databases and tools will 
be needed on the front lines of this new effort.
  On the occasion of this 25th anniversary, I ask my colleagues to join 
me in congratulating Dr. Lipman and the outstanding staff of NCBI, who 
through their skill and vision have built this unique biomedical 
resource.

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