As you know, this meeting has been on my schedule for some time, and I've looked forward to the opportunity of interacting with you, the Directors of the Roadmap National Centers for Biomedical Computing. I recall a cold December day in 2002 at one of the earliest Roadmap planning meetings when I was reminded by some of your colleagues of the 1999 BISTI report, and emphatically pressed to "get on" with the creation of National Programs of Excellence in Biomedical Computing. I also remember being at the first Digital Biology symposium in the Fall of 2003. Much of the excitement centered upon announcement that week of one the earliest Roadmap initiatives, which enabled – for the first time – a truly cross-cutting program in Biomedical Computing, broader than any single NIH domain. Thus, this program has been a pioneer in all respects. You are among the first of our Roadmap pioneers, but more important, you are pioneers in the critical quantitative, analytical, informational and integrative issues defining new frontiers in biomedical research and pre-emptive medicine. It is time we all talk about the next steps in transforming a shared vision into a true national infrastructure for biomedical computing.

Your Centers are part of the Roadmap process through which NIH serves emerging areas of science, incubates research concepts, and experiments with leading-edge issues. Your Centers are about boldness, not business as usual. I worry about what I call "sclerosis:" artificial silos and barriers in research. For that reason, I commend you on creating Working Groups to explore areas of mutual interest, cooperation and interaction. The efforts you are exerting through your Work Groups in developing systems for identifying and characterizing computational tools, tackling the data and resource needs for systems biology, and addressing the complicated issues associated with scientific ontologies represent the bold, broad-based, unconventional leadership we expect from you and the Roadmap efforts.

I also remain concerned that scientists need to find effective ways of communicating the importance and value of their work to the public. For these reasons, I also am heartened by the enthusiasm by which you all have embraced and organized tomorrow's Dissemination events while you are here. Such efforts are absolutely critical to your mission as a Roadmap endeavor, and to helping me explain as NIH Director the value of the NIH investment.

With its theme of "Building Bridges," this All Hands Meeting represents the innovation we anticipated from you. It has become organic, in that it is not a gathering in time, but the beginning of new thinking, new efforts and new relationships. I regret that a last minute scheduling conflict kept me from being with you, but I assure you that I will follow the reports of your comments during this panel discussion and activities here with great interest, and look forward to future opportunities for more direct dialogues.