Announcements

NIH INTERDISCIPLINARY WOMEN’S HEALTH RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM

“Sex Differences Methodology and Reporting”
Thursday, November 6, 2014, 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
Masur Auditorium, NIH Clinical Center (Building 10)
Register at http://bit.ly/1nJsygb

Keynote speakers include David Page (MIT’s Whitehead Institute) and NIDA Director Nora Volkow, who are both well-known champions of why sex is an important consideration in biomedical research design from cells to people.

OFFICIAL OPENING CAJAL EXHIBIT

Remarks, Ribbon Cutting, Reception
Friday, November 7, 9:00 a.m.
Porter Neuroscience Research Center (Building 35A)

The NIH will honor Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, with an exhibit of scientist’s original neural cell illustrations. The illustrations, from the turn of the 20th century, never have been exhibited in North America and will be on loan from Cajal Institute in Madrid, Spain.
Cajal was the first to describe the nervous system in exquisite detail. He found that the individual cells (later termed "neurons") typically comprise three distinct structures. He posited that these cells function as information processing units that employ electrical impulses to communicate within networks. To reveal these cell structures in his tissue slides, Cajal employed a variety of staining techniques-including silver chromate-pioneered by Camillo Golgi, with whom he shared the 1906 Nobel Prize.
In addition to Cajal's original drawings, floor tiles will reproduce tissue slides, as Cajal saw them through his microscope, and visitors will be greeted by an almost life-size photomural that captures Cajal as the artist-scientist in his studio/lab.

THIRD ANNUAL DAVID DERSE MEMORIAL LECTURE AND AWARD

Tuesday, November 18, 1:30–3:00 p.m.
NCI-Frederick; Building 549 Conference Center

Walther Mothes (Yale University School of Medicine) will deliver the lecture “Seeing Is Believing–Visualizing Individual Steps of the Retroviral Life Cycle.” The event will be videocast live at http://videocast.nih.gov.

WORKSHOP: REPRODUCIBILITY OF DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Monday, November 24, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Lipsett Amphitheater (Building 10)
For agenda and to register: http://wals.od.nih.gov/reproducibility

This workshop will be the first of three such workshops sponsored by the NIH Office of the Director on the important topic of reproducibility, the subject of recent editorials in leading scientific journals. Several world-class scientists will speak about important technologies in cell biology; a panel of editors from five scientific journals covering cell biology will discuss issues with data reproducibility in the scientific literature. The purpose of these workshops is to educate the NIH intramural research community about what advanced technologies can accomplish and the kinds of reproducibility problems that can arise; provide a cautionary note to scientists who hope to use various new modeling techniques but are inexperienced with them; and educate others who are attempting to interpret results in the literature. The event will be videocast live at http://videocast.nih.gov.

THE ANITA B. ROBERTS FALL LECTURE

Thursday, December 11, 2014, 3:30–4:30 p.m.
Lipsett Amphitheater (Building 10)

Y. Peng Loh, section chief of NICHD’s Section on Cellular Neurobiology, will present “Neurotrophic Factor alpha-1: A Key Regulator of Neuroprotection, Depression, and Cancer Metastasis.” This seminar series highlights outstanding research achievements of women scientists in NIH’s Intramural Research Program and is dedicated to the memory of Anita B. Roberts, former chief of NCI’s Laboratory of Cell Regulation and Carcinogenesis. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodations to participate should contact Margaret McBurney at 301-496-1921 and/or Federal Relay, 1-800-877-8339, five days before the lecture.

CLINICAL CENTER GRAND ROUNDS

Wednesdays, Noon–1:00 p.m.
Lipsett Amphitheater (Building 10)
For information, go to http://www.cc.nih.gov/about/news/grcurrent.html. The grand rounds are videocast live at http://videocast.nih.gov.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON LECTURES (WALS)

Most Wednesdays, 3:00–4:00 p.m.
Masur Auditorium (Building 10)

The 2014–2015 season of the Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) is in full swing and features prominent scientists from leading universities. To see the schedule, go to http://wals.od.nih.gov. Videocast live at http://videocast.nih.gov.

DEMYSTIFYING MEDICINE 2015

Tuesdays, January 6–April 28, 2015
4:00–6:00 p.m.
Building 50 Conference Room

The “DeMystifying Medicine” course, in its 13th year, bridges the gap between advances in biology and their application to human disease. Each class features presentations by a clinician, a researcher, and often a patient. For more information, a complete schedule, and instructions on how to sign up, visit http://demystifyingmedicine.od.nih.gov or contact Win Arias at ariasi@mail.nih.gov.

January 6: “ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder): from causes to treatment and long-term outcome”; Maximilian Meunke (NHGRI), Philip Shaw (NHGRI)
January 13: “Dengue: ‘Breakbone Fever’: A Major Unpublicized Killer Disease,” Stephen Whitehead (NIAID), Anna Durbin, (NIAID)
January 20: “New Advances in Cancer Diagnosis (Genomics) and Treatment (Immunotoxins),” Ira Pastan (NCI), Paul Meltzer (NCI)
January 27: “Ebola: A terrifying challenge,” Nancy Sullivan (NIAID) and Jens Kuhn (NIAID)
February 3: “Tuberculosis: Return of the ’White Plague,’” Clifton Barry (NIAID), Ray Chen (NIAID)
February 10: “Ras: A Cancer Mechanism and Target,” Frank McCormick (UCSF, NCI), Susan Bates (NCI)
February 17: “Glycoprotein Diseases: Important, Unrecognized and Challenging,” John Hanover (NIDDK), Sergio Rosenzweig (NIAID)
February 24: “Marihuana: The Highs and Lows,” Nora Volkov (NIDA), George Kunos (NIAAA)
March 3: “Malaria: Bioengineering and the Global Epidemic of a Killer,” Sangeeta Bhatia (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Thomas Willems (NIAID)
March 10: “Mitochondria: Biology Meets Disease,” Richard Youle (NINDS), Michael Sack (NHLBI)
March 17: “Alcohol: How Does It Do the Things It Does?” George Koob, (NIAAA), Bin Gao (NIAAA)
March 24: “Vision: Cerebral Pathways and Diseases,” David Leopold (NIMH), Emily Chew (HER INSTITUTE), Edmond Fitzgibbon (NEI
March 31: “Bladder Cancer: Chromosomes and a Major Disease,” Lyuba Varticovski (NCI), Andrea Apolo (NCI)
April 7: “Infertility: An Increasing Problem Prompting Remarkable Advances,” Alan Decherney (NICHD), Germaine Buck Louis (NICHD)
April 14: “Sickle Cell Anemia: A Vicious Viscid Sickle Cycle,” Alan Schechter (NIDDK), Christopher Austin (NCATS)
April 21: “Non-Alcoholic Steato-Hepatitis: The Latest Hepatic 'Epidemic,'” Jay Hoofnagle (NIDDK), Arun Sunyal (Virginia Commonwealth University)
April 28: “The Future for Biomedical Scientists,” Michael Gottesman (OD/NCI), Jonathan Lorsch (NIGMS), John Gallin (CC), Win Arias (NICHD/CC)

2014–2015 DIRECTOR’S SEMINAR SERIES

Fridays, 12:00–1:00 p.m.
Wilson Hall (Building One)

The speakers are recently tenured senior investigators. For questions, contact the Office of Intramural Research at 301-496-1921.

November 14: Joshua Milner (NIAID), “Pathogenic Pathways in Allergy Gleaned from Monogenic Diseases”
January 9: Wei Li (NEI), “Neurobiology of the Retina: Synapse, Circuit and Metabolism”
February 6: Yie Liu (NIA), “Telomere DNA Repair and Structure Resolution”
March 6: Sam Mbulaiteye (NCI-DCEG), “Burkitt Lymphoma: A Complex Model Including Polymicrobial Carcinogenesis”
April 10: Bryan Traynor (NIA), “Genomics of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis”
May 8: Mariana Kaplan (NIAMS), “The Pathogenesis of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Casting the NET Widely”
June 5: Rosa Puertollano (NHLBI), “New Roles of Lysosomes in Health and Disease”

FAES GRADUATE SCHOOL ONLINE REGISTRATION

Spring 2015 term
December 1, 2014–January 23, 2015
Late registration runs till February 13, 2015
Open House: January 15, 2015
FAES Academic Center Terrace (Building 10)

The FAES Graduate School has 12 departments and offers over 120 evening courses to fit around the schedule of working professionals. Most evening courses are conveniently located on the main NIH Bethesda campus. Courses are credit-bearing and cover fields relevant to the broader biomedical research community: biochemistry, bioinformatics, biology, chemistry, epidemiology, genetics, immunology, mathematics, medicine, microbiology, pharmacology, public health, statistics, technology transfer, toxicology, Medical College Admission Test review, Graduate Records Examinations, English as a second language, boot camp for university teaching, modern languages, and more. Students can also further their education and career development by completing FAES’s Advanced Studies in Public Health or Advanced Studies in Technology Transfer. Courses are open to the NIH community, other federal employees, and the general public. Tuition is $150–$450 per course. For class schedules, semester calendar, and information on how to enroll, visit www.faes.org/grad, e-mail registrar@faes.org, or call 301-496-7976. The FAES Graduate School Office is located in Building 10, Room 1N241 (close to Masur Auditorium).

OFFICE OF EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION LAUNCHES NEW WEB SITE

NIH’s Equal Employment Opportunity and anti-discrimination office changed both its name and its Web presence recently. The new Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) replaces what had been known as the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management. Debra Chew, who directs EDI, launched the change with a concept she calls “EDI 365.” Over the past two years, the office gathered feedback from the NIH community to strengthen NIH’s diversity and inclusion efforts. EDI’s new mission statement is “We cultivate a culture of inclusion where diverse talent is leveraged to advance health discovery.” Its new vision statement is “Making NIH the premier place for diverse talent to work and discover.” To learn about innovations at EDI, visit http://edi.nih.gov/.

THE NIH VOLUNTARY LEAVE BANK: BECOME A 2015 MEMBER!

Open enrollment: November 10–December 8, 2014
Membership period begins: January 11, 2015

The Leave Bank is a pooled bank of donated annual and restored leave available to eligible members. It offers income protection and amounts to paid leave for members who have exhausted all of their leave and are affected by a personal or family medical emergency or condition. An advantage of the Leave Bank is that eligible members may receive leave from the bank to cover time out of the office without requesting donations. To elect to become a 2015 member, access the Integrated Time and Attendance System (ITAS) during the open enrollment and enroll under “Leave Bank Membership.” If you are already a 2014 Leave Bank member, your membership will automatically continue into 2015, unless you take action in ITAS during the open-enrollment period electing to opt-out. For each membership year, there is a membership-contribution requirement. The annual membership contribution is one pay period’s worth of annual leave accrual. If you do not have sufficient leave to make the membership contribution, you will automatically receive a waiver. ITAS is available at https://itas.nih.gov. For information visit http://hr.od.nih.gov/benefits/leave/vlbp/default.htm. Questions may be directed to the NIH Leave Bank Office at 301-443-8393 or LeaveBank@od.nih.gov.

AWARDS

THE INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE (IOM)

On October 20, the IOM announced the names of 70 new members and 10 foreign associates during its 44th annual meeting. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Two NIH intramural researchers were elected: James Cimino and John O’Shea. James J. Cimino is chief of the Laboratory for Informatics Development, NIH Clinical Center and National Library of Medicine. His primary research relates to clinical research informatics and clinical informatics, with special emphasis on biomedical-concept representation and automated-decision support. John Joseph O’Shea Jr., the scientific director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, discovered Janus kinase 3 (Jak3) and, with colleagues, showed that genetic defects in its gene, Jak3, could cause severe combined immunodeficiency. His groundbreaking work led to collaboration with Pfizer, Inc., which generated a JAK inhibitor that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

NATIONAL MEDALS

Douglas Lowy and John Schiller of the National Cancer Institute will receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, which along with the National Medal of Science is the nation’s highest honor for achievement and leadership in advancing the fields of science and technology. President Obama made the announcement on October 3, 2014. The new awardees will receive their medals at a White House ceremony later this year. Lowy and Schiller made breakthrough discoveries that advanced the development of vaccines against human papillomavirus (HPV), the cause of almost all cases of cervical cancer. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection around the world. Over two decades, Lowy and Schiller discovered that the major structural protein of papillomaviruses could self-assemble into noninfectious virus-like particles that have the ability to induce high production of protective antibodies and can be produced by a method that is amenable to large-scale industrial production of a vaccine. The vaccine, shown to be 100 percent effective in preventing infection from the most harmful strains, HPV16 and HPV18, is now available globally and recommended for adolescent girls and boys. Lowy and Schiller previously won the 2011 Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award for this work. Roscoe Brady of NINDS also won the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2008; Anthony Fauci of NIAID and Mortimer Mishkin of NIMH received the National Medal of Science in 2005 and 2010, respectively.

NIH PARTNERS WITH STORYCORPS, ENCOURAGE VOLUNTEERS TO SHARE STORIES OF MEDICAL RESEARCH

NIH’s Office of Science, Outreach, and Policy is launching an exciting project to capture the voices of medical research. The office has partnered with StoryCorps, a national oral-history project, to give patients, their loved ones, researchers, staff, and others in the community an opportunity to share their stories. A StoryCorps interview is 40 minutes of uninterrupted time for meaningful conversation between two people who know each other well: two researchers; a patient and/or family member and researcher; family members of a patient; etc. Due to limited slots, StoryCorps may not be able to accommodate all volunteers. The participants determine the conversation topics, but the goal is to capture stories that reflect different aspects of the NIH research experience. Some of these stories are edited into shorter segments that may be shared with millions of Americans in a weekly, award-winning broadcast on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and through the StoryCorps Web site and podcast. StoryCorps will be on campus for three days this December. Participants will receive a copy of their recordings, which will also be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Additionally, selected recordings will be turned into edited segments that will be integrated into the visitor experience at NIH, featured on the NIH Web site, and shared with broader communities through social media or played in media broadcasts, presentations, etc. For more information or to ask to participate, e-mail storycorps@nih.gov.