NIH Clinical Center

NIH Mourns the Passing of John Gallin

Thursday, October 17, 2024

NIH Director Monica M. Bertagnolli, M.D., offered the following tribute to Dr. John I. Gallin, M.D., upon hearing of his passing on Thursday, October 10, 2024.

It is with a heavy heart that I share that John I. Gallin, M.D., the 10th and longest-serving director of the NIH Clinical Center, died at his home today of multiple myeloma at the age of 81 with his wife Elaine Gallin, Ph.D., by his side.

John’s illustrious career at NIH spanned more than 50 years, but he will be most remembered for leading NIH’s research hospital for 23 years from 1994-2017. He often said that his time at the NIH Clinical Center, which he referred to as the “House of Hope,” was his most special because of the hospital’s partnership with patients to improve health through clinical research. He developed the hospital’s research portfolio, created the Patient Advisory Group, established the Department of Bioethics, and was instrumental in the creation of the Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge for adult patients and their families, a complement to The Children’s Inn. He also led efforts to build the addition to the hospital, the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, which opened to patients in 2005. He started the Bench-to-Bedside Awards to integrate the work of basic and clinical investigators. His years of work led to the NIH Clinical Center receiving the 2011 Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award.

The Boon of Blood

A Look Inside NIH’s Department of Transfusion Medicine

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

The essential role of blood in our bodies has been recognized as far back as the time of ancient Greece, when the Greek physician Hippocrates included it in his list of four ‘humors’ that influence our health and emotions. Since then, scientists have vastly expanded our understanding of the dark red liquid running through our veins and arteries. Nowadays, researchers and technicians like those in NIH’s Department of Transfusion Medicine (DTM) can not only safely remove blood from one person and transfuse it into another, but they can also transform it into incredible forms of therapy.

The Life-Saving NIH Blood Bank

Blood Donors Play Critical Role in IRP’s Mission

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

The NIH IRP is full of vampires. Hundreds of patients at the NIH Clinical Center — not to mention scientists in roughly 200 IRP labs — depend on blood provided by NIH’s very own blood bank.

Conveniently located in the NIH Clinical Center, the NIH Blood Bank collects roughly 4,000 units of ‘whole blood’ each year — the process most people think of when they think of donating blood. It also receives more than 2,000 annual donations of specific blood components, which are collected via a process that separates them from other parts of the blood and returns the rest to the donor’s body. Most of those donations gather blood-clotting platelets, but the NIH Blood Bank also occasionally collects oxygen-carrying red blood cells and infection-fighting ‘convalescent plasma.’

NIH History Shows Off Its Spooky Side

Museum Collection Contains Many Eye-Catching Objects and Photographs

Monday, October 31, 2022

Anyone who has engaged in a marathon of gruesome Halloween movies knows that the human body can be portrayed in ways that are frightening. Even in real life, the tools and techniques researchers use to understand disease may seem like something out of a work of fiction. In honor of Halloween this year, let’s sneak inside the archives of the Office of NIH History & Stetten Museum to see the spookiest nooks and crannies of our collection. Whatever you do, don’t turn out the lights!