The Health Research Alliance (HRA), a nonprofit group representing private foundations and voluntary health agencies committed to health research, held its annual advisory-committee meeting in Phoenix on Sept. 3-4. As the meeting's host, the Flinn Foundation arranged for reports and informational presentations to the group from some of Arizona's leading practitioners of health research.

HRA, which grew out of a 1998 meeting of philanthropic organizations committed to strengthening health research, today represents 35 not-for-profit, nongovernmental funders that collaborate to support health research. It works among member organizations to share data and best practices, informed by current information on the landscape of the health-research enterprise, and externally, by encouraging communication and collaboration among grantmakers and the broader health-research and policymaking communities.

Among the advisory-committee meeting's sessions were:

• A discussion about creating and funding problem-based research consortia, featuring the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium and the Arizona Parkinson's Disease Consortium, with speakers including Eric Reiman, director of Banner Alzheimer's Institute; Charles Adler, professor of neurology and chair, Mayo Foundation Division of Movement Disorders; and Thomas Beach, head and senior scientist, Civin Laboratory of Neuropathology, Sun Health Research Institute.
• A overview of developments in the Phoenix-based Partnership for Personalized Medicine, with presentations from Jeffrey Trent, president and scientific director of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen); and Daniel Von Hoff, physician in chief and senior investigator of TGen.
• A report on recent and recommended reforms at the Food and Drug Administration, including a review of work accomplished by the Critical Path Institute (C-Path), presented by Raymond Woosley, president and CEO of C-Path.

Following the meeting's last session, members attended site visits with representatives of TGen and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The NIDDK has an epidemiology and clinical-research branch in Phoenix and partners with TGen on the Family Investigation of Nephropathy in Diabetes Consortium.

HRA members include, along with the Flinn Foundation, some of best-known and most-respected health-research funders and advocates in the United States. Among more than 30 members are the American Cancer Society, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the March of Dimes, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.