Features

Wonder Drugs and Super Bugs

The Rise of Antibiotics…and Antibiotic Resistance

By SARAH RHODES, OD

Ever since 1928 when penicillin mold was discovered to secrete an antibacterial substance, doctors have been developing antibiotics to fight bacterial infections. Now the bacteria are fighting back. But NIH scientists are seeking ways to thwart antibiotic-resistant bacteria, developing new antibiotics that work differently than the older ones, and even trying to understand antibiotic resistance from a historical perspective.

No Footprints?

NIH Scientists Discover Possible Flaw in an ENCODE Trusted Technique

BY REBECCA BURGESS, OD

NIH researchers have found a flaw in an important tool that is supposed to identify certain functional elements of the human genome. The finding, that some proteins bind too briefly with DNA to leave “footprints,” may prompt a rethinking of how best to map regulatory regions in DNA.

The Science of Mentoring Women in Science

Judith Walters: Mentor Extraordinaire

BY RACHEL SCHEINERT, NIMH

Judith “Judie” Walters is a self-described “product of a women’s college”—Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She was confident she could tackle academic challenges and assume leadership roles in whatever she chose to do. At college she had fallen in love with the emerging field of neuropharmacology—the study of how drugs affect the brain. There was no question in her mind that she would go on to pursue a career in science. But when she applied to graduate school in the late 1960s, one male interviewer asked, “Why do you want to get a Ph.D.? You’re a woman!” Unfazed, Walters went on to earn a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Yale. Today she is chief of the Neurophysiological Pharmacology Section in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

B Cells, T Cells, and Natural Killers, Oh My!

Elaine Jaffe Puts Lymphomas in Their Place

BY BRANDON LEVY, NIMH

Cancers are not created equally. NIH hematopathologist Elaine Jaffe, whose work focuses on cancers of the blood-forming system, knows all too well how subtle variations can have an impact on diagnoses and treatment. Indeed, she has exploited those variations in her search for treatments. In scrutinizing minute differences among malignant lymphomas, Jaffe has conducted pioneering studies related to their classification and has led an international effort for consensus among clinicians and pathologists.

NIH Town Hall Meeting with HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell

On January 28, 2015, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell spent a few hours at NIH for whirlwind tours of labs and clinics, for meetings with several NIH scientific leaders to get research updates, and as the guest of honor at a town hall meeting in Masur Auditorium (Building 10).