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The Aging of Biomedical Research in the United States

In the past 30 years, the average age of biomedical researchers has steadily increased. The average age of an investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) rose from 39 to 51 between 1980 and 2008. The aging of the biomedical workforce was even more apparent when looking at first-time NIH...

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Autores principales: Matthews, Kirstin R. W., Calhoun, Kara M., Lo, Nathan, Ho, Vivian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3247288/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22216352
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029738
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author Matthews, Kirstin R. W.
Calhoun, Kara M.
Lo, Nathan
Ho, Vivian
author_facet Matthews, Kirstin R. W.
Calhoun, Kara M.
Lo, Nathan
Ho, Vivian
author_sort Matthews, Kirstin R. W.
collection PubMed
description In the past 30 years, the average age of biomedical researchers has steadily increased. The average age of an investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) rose from 39 to 51 between 1980 and 2008. The aging of the biomedical workforce was even more apparent when looking at first-time NIH grantees. The average age of a new investigator was 42 in 2008, compared to 36 in 1980. To determine if the rising barriers at NIH for entry in biomedical research might impact innovative ideas and research, we analyzed the research and publications of Nobel Prize winners from 1980 to 2010 to assess the age at which their pioneering research occurred. We established that in the 30-year period, 96 scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine or chemistry for work related to biomedicine, and that their groundbreaking research was conducted at an average age of 41—one year younger than the average age of a new investigator at NIH. Furthermore, 78% of the Nobel Prize winners conducted their research before the age of 51, the average age of an NIH principal investigator. This suggested that limited access to NIH might inhibit research potential and novel projects, and could impact biomedicine and the next generation scientists in the United States.
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spelling pubmed-32472882012-01-03 The Aging of Biomedical Research in the United States Matthews, Kirstin R. W. Calhoun, Kara M. Lo, Nathan Ho, Vivian PLoS One Research Article In the past 30 years, the average age of biomedical researchers has steadily increased. The average age of an investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) rose from 39 to 51 between 1980 and 2008. The aging of the biomedical workforce was even more apparent when looking at first-time NIH grantees. The average age of a new investigator was 42 in 2008, compared to 36 in 1980. To determine if the rising barriers at NIH for entry in biomedical research might impact innovative ideas and research, we analyzed the research and publications of Nobel Prize winners from 1980 to 2010 to assess the age at which their pioneering research occurred. We established that in the 30-year period, 96 scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine or chemistry for work related to biomedicine, and that their groundbreaking research was conducted at an average age of 41—one year younger than the average age of a new investigator at NIH. Furthermore, 78% of the Nobel Prize winners conducted their research before the age of 51, the average age of an NIH principal investigator. This suggested that limited access to NIH might inhibit research potential and novel projects, and could impact biomedicine and the next generation scientists in the United States. Public Library of Science 2011-12-28 /pmc/articles/PMC3247288/ /pubmed/22216352 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029738 Text en Matthews et al. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration, which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.
spellingShingle Research Article
Matthews, Kirstin R. W.
Calhoun, Kara M.
Lo, Nathan
Ho, Vivian
The Aging of Biomedical Research in the United States
title The Aging of Biomedical Research in the United States
title_full The Aging of Biomedical Research in the United States
title_fullStr The Aging of Biomedical Research in the United States
title_full_unstemmed The Aging of Biomedical Research in the United States
title_short The Aging of Biomedical Research in the United States
title_sort aging of biomedical research in the united states
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3247288/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22216352
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029738
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