In President Barack Obama's $3.6 trillion budget request to Congress—his first since taking office in January—overall spending on research would creep up by 0.6%, to $59 billion, over the comparable appropriation for 2009

A frantic grant-writing effort that has consumed biomedical research scientists this spring came to an end last week, resulting in a huge pile of new applications—more than 10 times larger than expected—to be reviewed by the National Institutes of Health

Biochemist Alfred Gilman was named scientific director of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas last month. Science interviewed Gilman recently; his comments have been edited for brevity