Features

A Life Collected

Joseph Edward Rall (1920–2008)

BY HANK GRASSO AND MICHELE LYONS, OFFICE OF NIH HISTORY

When Joseph “Ed” Rall’s daughter, Priscilla Rall, decided to share her father’s history with the NIH Stetten Museum and the National Library of Medicine (NLM), she welcomed representatives from both to her home and amazed them with her family’s extensive historical collections. Pia Rall had painstakingly collected, organized, and preserved the evidence of her father’s life and work—his legacy—and was interested in returning some of these resources to NIH so that his voice would always be found there. Ed Rall did groundbreaking research on the thyroid, founded one of the world’s leading thyroid centers at NIH, and was an inspirational force in NIH’s intramural program.

Meet the Stadtmans

Trans-NIH Recruiting Effort Brings in 11 Investigators

BY REBECCA BAKER (NIAID) AND LAURA S. CARTER

Luca Gattinoni (NCI) took his “first steps into science” as a toddler in the NIH Child Care Center when his parents were Visiting Fellows at NIH. Physicist Kandice Tanner (NCI) is drawn to motion, whether it’s from tumor cells migrating into new tissues or her own body hurtling through space while she’s skydiving. Developmental biologist Todd Macfarlan (NICHD) is intrigued with how viruses “are so intimately intertwined with our own evolution as a species.” Indeed, all 11 members of the 2011–2012 cycle of Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigators have a story to tell.

Sickle-Cell Disease in Africa

An Interview with Tanzanian Researcher Julie Makani

BY HELENE BLANCHARD, NIA

Julie Makani, a Tanzanian investigator, just completed a three-month sabbatical at NIH as part of an effort to integrate Western and African knowledge to improve the care of people with sickle-cell disease (SCD). Makani first came to NIH on February 13, 2013, to give a talk for the Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) on “Sickle Cell Disease: What Can Africa Contribute?” in which she talked about leveraging existing resources in Africa and the United States to develop programs that integrate health care, education, and research.

The Myriad Decision: A Move toward Trade Secrets?

BY CHRIS PALMER, NCI

Are genes patentable? In June 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling on the case Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., answered that question with a resounding “No.”