Research Festival

Sharing Science at the NIH Research Festival

Poster Sessions Showcase IRP Discoveries

IRP postdoctoral fellow Siobhan Lawler

No single event captures the incredible breadth of research going on in the IRP as effectively as the annual NIH Research Festival. In fact, the event is so jam-packed that it typically stretches over multiple days, running this year from September 23-25. The first day of the 2024 Research Festival kicked off with a poster session where scientists from all across NIH showcased the cutting-edge science they have been working on, demonstrating research on subjects like how cooking affects the brain, vaping’s impact on lung health, 3D models for studying pregnancy complications, and much more. Read on to dive deeper into a few of the more than 400 research projects presented at this celebration of IRP science.

A New Tool in the Battle Against Depression

Annual Lecture Details Revolutionary Treatment’s Bench-to-Bedside Journey

depressed man in a dark room

As hard as IRP scientists work in the lab, they work equally hard to make sure their findings have a real-world impact on patients’ lives. The pathway from the lab to the clinic, though, is rarely straightforward — something IRP senior investigator Carlos Zarate Jr, M.D., knows first-hand from his game-changing innovations in treating depression.

Dr. Zarate closed this year’s NIH Research Festival on September 22 by describing that odyssey in the 16th annual Philip S. Chen, Jr., Ph.D. Distinguished Lecture on Innovation and Technology Transfer. Named in honor of the former IRP investigator who established NIH’s Office of Technology Transfer in 1986, the annual event celebrates important IRP innovations that have moved beyond the boundaries of NIH.

NIH Research Festival Hosts Postdoc Poster-Palooza

Annual Event Highlights Contributions of IRP Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Subhash Verma

At lunchtime last Wednesday, the NIH Clinical Center’s FAES Terrace echoed with the joyful sounds of scientists nourishing their bodies and their brains. While those stopping by the annual NIH Research Festival poster session could be forgiven for making a beeline straight for the food — including the submissions to this year’s Scientific Directors’ baking competition — once their plates were full, they took advantage of the opportunity to satiate their scientific curiosity as well by checking out the dozens of posters on display.

It's Time for a Science FARE!

Speaking at the NIH Research Festival in September, Michael Gottesman, M.D., the NIH Deputy Director for Intramural Research said, “The real research is being done by the fellows, by the students.” The FARE awards are meant to commend those researchers doing outstanding work at the NIH.

FARE poster presenter at NIH Research Festival

What’s Your Science?

What could be better than a big festival celebration? How about a festival celebrating science! Sounds like a nerd’s dream, right? Read more...

Previewing NIH’s Future at #ResearchFest 2015

With the Long-Term IRP Planning Report in hand, the 28th annual NIH Research Festival committee organized the 2015 event around the theme of A Celebration of Intramural Science to honor not only what has been achieved but also what is yet to come.

Inside NIH’s Research Festival

As I trekked along the manicured sidewalk of Convent Drive, heading toward Building 10, I felt the now-familiar weight of the poster tube hanging over my shoulder. Inside that poster tube was, as the name implies, a scientific poster with which I was extremely familiar. My calves burned underneath the intensity of my power walk, as I remained calm and ready to present my project about mice undergoing anesthesia.

Lucy Bauer interviews Dr. Brenda Klaunberg of NIH Mouse Imaging Facility at ResearchFest

The New OIR Web Site: Your Definitive “Source(book)”

Following on the successful launch and continued expansion of the IRP Web site, we turned our attention to developing a new, allied Web site to give people a broader view of the programs overseen by the Office of Intramural Research (OIR). The new site (oir.nih.gov), which is officially making its debut today, is intended to provide “one-stop shopping” regarding the oversight and coordination of the research, training, and technology transfer activities that take place within each Institute’s and Center’s intramural program, across all of our research campuses nationwide.

New OIR Website and Sourcebook

A Science Fair, All Grown Up

For the junior scientist, the poster session is a rite of passage, an opportunity to think about the big picture, and an exercise in communicating your work to a broad audience.

Subhashini Jagu

Era of the Brain at 2014 NIH Research Festival

The NIH Research Festival always has a strong theme running through it, from “Bench-to-Bedside” in 2002 and “Chromosomes in Modern Biology and Medicine” in 2007 to “The NIH at 125: Today's Discoveries, Tomorrow's Cures” in 2012. The year 2014 was no different, but it marked the first time that the Festival was focused on a single organ within the human body: the brain.

2014 NIH Research Festival