William Paul, who oversees one of the largest budgets at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as head of its Office of Research on the AIDS (SRO), aa decided to resign. "The time has come for me to give up the responsibilities of this position and return to the science lab as part of my commitment to the search for a vaccine against HIV safe and effective," wrote Paul in a "dear colleague "letter that will be widely distributed tomorrow.
Paul, who could not be reached for comment, did not specify the reasons for its abandonment of his position since February 1994, he did not give a timetable. but it is clearly not to be forced to leave. "Bill has done an excellent job and his departure is a real loss, but I am grateful to him for serving as long as it" , said NIH Director Harold Varmus, in response to a question from Science NOW.
When Paul took over SRO, Congress had redesigned the office, which gives it broad powers to oversee the entire NIH AIDS budget, which now stands at $ 1.5 billion. Under the mandate of Congress, Paul launched an ambitious revision of the gigantic program, which was conducted by more than 100 extramural research conducted by Arnold Levine of Princeton University. The gigantic "Levine Report," which was released in July 1996, "provides a restructuring plan NIH AIDS science program", as Paul noted in his letter to his colleagues.
Paul, a prominent immunologist, also tried to bring more attention and money for vaccine research against AIDS. One of his ideas, a center for research on vaccines intramural NIH, won so much support that President Bill Clinton has announced its formation in a speech last May.
Varmus said NIH now is to set up a "high profile" search committee "will advertise widely, hoping to find someone with talent approaching Bill to continue his good work . " Varmus added that he hopes to find a new director within 6 months, so that the person will be ready to testify at Congressional hearings appropriations next year. No candidate for the post is still on the radar screen.
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