lected as part of a strategy to deflect attention away from sugar restriction as a means to control caries .
Funding research to divert attention from limiting sugar intake.
Consistent with a deflection strategy, between 1967 and 1970, SRF funded Project 269 to bolster research on interventions not requiring sugar restriction to control dental caries . Project 269, led by Professor Bertram Cohen at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, sought to render S. mutans less destructive to teeth after sugar was consumed using enzymes called dextranases to break the sticky dextrans in dental plaque formed after sugar was consumed . Project 269 also attempted to develop a vaccine against tooth decay that would allow people to continue to consume sugar . The NIDR had investigated both methods in the 1960s  and found that although dextranases added to the food and water of rodents had shown some promise of being effective, more research was necessary before human applications could be developed , and a vaccine against S. mutans tested in hamsters failed to prevent tooth decay . By 1962, NIDR scientists were suggesting that measures other than a vaccine would be needed to control dental caries .
SRF allocated US$12,000 (US$85,455 in 2014 dollars) to Project 269 between 1967 and 1970 . Project 269 was primarily funded by the chocolate and confectionary industries and had an annual budget of US$120,000 (US$854,558 in 2014 dollars) . A confidential report mailed to Roger Adams summarizing Project 269 indicated that SRF considered dental caries “one of the major troublesome factors in the nonacceptance of sucrose” . SRF leaders hoped that their support for this new project would prove a “significant way of solving the problem” .
Funding from SRF and the chocolate and confectionary industry allowed Cohen to create a new laboratory to use monkeys for the development of dextranases and a tooth decay vaccine for human application . SRF hoped that the work on dextranases and a vaccine could be handed over to drug companies to develop commercial quantities . A 1968 Montreal Gazette article, “These Monkeys May Save Your Teeth,” reported that one practical application for dextranase under consideration was “to mix it with raw sugar and use it as a powder on desserts and cakes and in soft drinks” . Cohen was described as having “little sympathy for those who would ban sweet things,” and was quoted as saying “Why should people be denied pleasure? It would obviously be far better to eliminate the harmful effects” . While at the time there was less attention paid to scientific conflicts of interest than in 2015, the article mentioned that a grant from the Nuffield Foundation funded the building of the research unit that housed the monkeys, but not that the sugar or chocolate and confectionary industries were also supporting Cohen’s work .
Setting Research Priorities for the National Caries Program, 1968–1969
At a June 1968 press conference, NIDR Director Kreshover announced the creation of the Caries Task Force chaired by NIDR Laboratory of Microbiology chief Henry Scherp to develop the NCP . A subcommittee, the Caries Task Force Steering Committee, was assigned the essential task of identifying research priorities . Task force members were largely drawn from federal agencies and academia (Table 2). Professor Basil Bibby, with a strong background in developing models that could evaluate the cariogenicity of foods, would be assigned a leading role in evaluating research supporting dietary interventions to eliminate tooth decay .
In 1968, SRF reorganized as ISRF to carry on SRF’s research mission at the global level . Existing SRF research projects, including Project 269, continued to be supported by ISRF . ISRF was also interested in engaging federal research agencies. On July 1, 1968, Dr. Philip Ross became ISRF president . Ross had ties to the NIH, having served as chief of the NIDR/NIH Research Grants Section from 1963 to 1965, then as assistant head of the NIH Special International Programs Section until 1967 . Moreover, that summer, ISRF mov