Announcements

FEDERAL BENEFITS OPEN SEASON FOR 2016

Monday, November 9, 2015, to Monday, December 14, 2015

NIH Federal Benefits Open Season Fair: Thurs., November 19; 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.

Natcher Conference Center (Building 45), Atrium Level

The 2016 Federal Benefits Open Season runs from November 9 to December 14, 2015. The following programs will be participating: 1) Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB); 2) Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs); and 3) Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP). For more information including details about the new enrollment type Self Plus One, visit the Open Season Announcements page at https://hr.od.nih.gov/benefits/change/openseason/. At the Open Season Fair, representatives from the various benefit programs will be participating. For additional information or for questions, e-mail AskBPLB@od.nih.gov or call the Benefits Office at 301-496-2404.

MURRAY TO PRESENT LATEST GLOBAL BURDEN OF DISEASE FINDINGS

Wednesday, November 18; 11:00 a.m.

Masur Auditorium (Building 10)

For more information, visit http://bit.ly/MurrayLecture2015

Fogarty International Center will host a presentation by Christopher J.L. Murray, who leads the Global Burden of Disease research project, the largest and most comprehensive effort to date to measure and visualize health trends worldwide. In his talk, “New Insights from the Global Burden of Disease 2013 Study,” Murray will discuss the latest findings from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study (GBD), focusing on four papers recently published in The Lancet. Key points are related to child and adult mortality; causes of death; communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional disorders; noncommunicable diseases; injuries and risk factors. GBD 2013 expands the methodology, data sets, and tools used in the prior update, GBD 2010, which Murray addressed during an NIH visit two years ago.

A physician and economist, Murray is a professor of global health and director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington at Seattle (Seattle). He is a founder of the GBD study, which he describes as a systematic, scientific effort to quantify the comparative magnitude of health loss due to diseases, injuries, and risk factors by age, sex, geography, and over time. The GBD study is a collaboration that involves more than 1,000 researchers in over 100 countries assembling the world’s data. The IHME aims to provide the most accurate and comprehensive population health information to create a strong foundation for strategic decision-making. In addition to collecting data, IHME develops methods to understand them and trains the next generation of data scientists.

OFFICE OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS (ODS) RESEARCH SCHOLARS SYMPOSIUM

Monday, November 30, 2015; 8:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Room 640, Porter Building (Building 35)

Don’t miss the first annual ODS Research Scholars Symposium. Learn about the exciting research results from the first cohort of scholars, as well as how to apply to this program. Presentations include “Retinoic Acid Inhibits IL-9 by Altering the Chromatin Landscape to Disrupt Enhancer-Promoter Interactions” by Daniella Schwartz, NIAMS; “Iron Supplementation Increases Susceptibility to Intestinal Infection” by Timothy Hand, NIAID; “D-Mannose Regulates the T-cell Response in Autoimmune Disease” by Cheryl Chia, NIDCR; “Joint Effects of Vitamin D, Genetics, and Epigenetics in the Prevention of Breast Cancer” by Katie O’Brien, NIEHS; and “Selenium Supplementation in Asbestos Exposed Individuals” by Matthew Thompson, NCI. Information about the scholars program and how to apply is on the ODS website: https://ods.od.nih.gov/Research/Scholars.aspx. The symposium is also an opportunity to showcase dietary supplement research within the federal government. For additional information, or if you would like to present a poster, please contact Cindy Davis (davisci@od.nih.gov or 301-496-0168) by October 30, 2015. Information about the program and how to apply is on our website: https://ods.od.nih.gov/Research/Scholars.aspx.

DEMYSTIFYING MEDICINE 2016

Tuesdays, January 5–May 10, 2016; 4:00–6:00 p.m.

Ground floor auditorium, Building 50 (unless otherwise noted)

To sign up and for more information, go to https://demystifyingmedicine.od.nih.gov

The NIH- and FAES-sponsored course entitled “Demystifying Medicine,” in its 12th year, is designed to excite the interest of Ph.D. and M.D. students, fellows, researchers, and others in bridging the gap between amazing advances in basic science and the challenges of clinical disease. There are no formal requirements to attend as many of the weekly sessions as desired. The format involves a translational physician, a basic scientist, and usually a live patient who puts a human face on the disease.

January 5: “The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind and Brain from Vienna 1900 to the Present” (Eric R. Kandel, Columbia University); Masur Auditorium (Building 10)

January 12: “Ebola, MERS and Likelihood of More Epidemics” (Anthony Fauci, NIAID); “Evolutionary Dynamics and Zoonotic and Cross-species Transmission of Emerging Viruses” (Vincent Munster, NIAID)

January 19: “The Future of Medicine: Personalized, Precision and Other” (Eric Green, NHGRI); “The Future of Medicine: Intramural Research Plans” (Michael Gottesman, OD)

January 26: How Long Can and Should We Live?” (Luigi Ferruci, NIA); “What Centenarians Teach Us about Aging” (Nir Barzilai, Albert Einstein College of Medicine)

February 2: “Where Do Viruses Come from and How Do They Do What They Do?” (John Coffin, NCI and Tufts); “From A to E: 2000 Years of Hepatitis Virus History” (Harvey Alter, CC)

February 9: “The Intestinal Microbiome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease” (Yasmine Belkaid and Warren Strober, NIAID)

February 16: “The Oral Microbiome Meets Cell Biology and Periodontal Disease” (Niki Moutsopoulos, NIDCR; Robert Palmer, NIDCR; Alex Valm, NICHD)

February 23: “Atopy: The Common and the Rare Allergies in the Genomic Era“ (Joshua Milner and Pamela Guerrerio, NIAID)

March 1: “Cell Polarity: Mechanisms and Disease in the Nervous System and Liver” (Juan Bonifacino, NICHD; Irwin Arias, CC and NICHD)

March 8: “Depression: Neuromodulation Meets Super-Resolution Cell Biology” (Sarah H. Lisanby, NIMH; Justin Taraska, NHLBI)

March 15: “Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Steato-Hepatitis (NAFLD/ NASH): An “Epidemic” Liver Disease Requiring New Drugs” (Yaron Rotman, NIDDK; Rosanah Kapellar, Nimbus)

March 22: “Progress in Understanding Congenital Heart Disease (the #1 Killer in Birth Defects): Mechanisms and New Technologies” (Gail Pearson and Robert Lederman, NHLBI)

March 29: “Shingles (Herpes Zoster) Revisited” (Jeffrey Cohen and Lesia Dropulic, NIAID)

April 5: “Multiple Sclerosis: Mechanisms and Imaging the Process” (Daniel Reich and Irene Cortese, NINDS)

April 12: “Global Warming: Effect on Vector Distribution, Disease and Natural Product Research” (Jonathan Sleeman, USGS; David Newman, NCI)

April 19: “Trauma in the Modern Age: Injury and Stem Cells” (Paul Pasquina, US Army USUHS; Ronald McKay, Leiber Institute and Johns Hopkins)

April 26: “Hepatocellular Cancer: Problems and Progress in an Epidemic Disease” (Snorri Thorgeirsson and Tim Gretin, NCI)

May 3: “Cholesterol: Too Much and Too Little Are Bad for Your Health” (Forbes Porter, NICHD; Robert Shamburek, NHLBI)

May 10: “Robotic Planetary Exploration and Thoughts about Human Spaceflight” (Stamatios Krimigis, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory)

NEWS FROM AND ABOUT THE SCIENTIFIC INTEREST GROUPS

The Inflammatory Disease Interest Group (IDIG) Seminar Series

Every other Tuesday, 12:00–1:30 p.m.

Lipsett Amphitheater (Building 10)

To join the LISTSERV (INFLAM-DIS-L), visit https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?SUBED1=INFLAM-DIS-L&A=1

For more information: contact Thomas A. Wynn at twynn@niaid.nih.gov

November 10: “Innate Lymphoid Cells in Smoking-induced Lung Inflammation” (Alison Humble, MedImmune)

November 24: “Inflammation of Small Blood Vessels: Emerging Concepts from the Studies of Rare Genetic Diseases” (Manfred Boehm, NHLBI)

December 8: “Small Molecules in the Resolution of Acute Inflammation” (Charles Serhan, Harvard)

January 5: “Myeloid Cells in Virus-Induced Neuroinflammation” (Dorian McGavern, NINDS)

January 19: “Periodontitis: A Microbial-Driven Inflammatory Disease” (Niki Moutsopoulos, NIDCR)

February 2: “Role of Inflammation in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases” (Nehal Mehta, NHLBI)

February 16: “Low Density Lipoproteins, DCs, and Treatment of Allergic Airway Inflammation” (Stew Levine, NHLBI)

March 1: “Immune Mechanisms of Synapse Loss in Health and Disease” (Beth Stevens, Harvard)

March 22: “Chemokines and Chemokine Receptors in IL-17A Mediated Inflammation” (Josh Farber, NIAID)

For notifications of upcoming seminars, join the LISTSERV. Save the date for the first IDIG minisymposium on May 2, 2016, in Lipsett Auditorium in Building 10.

FAES SEEKING NEW BOARD MEMBERS

Interested in making a difference for the NIH community? The Foundation for Advanced Education (FAES) in the Sciences is looking for individuals who are interested in serving on the board of directors for three-year terms or serving on a board committee. FAES (https://faes.org/) is a non-profit foundation that has supported education (FAES grad school), wellbeing (fellows insurance), and culture (Manchester String Quartet/National Symphony Orchestra concerts) at NIH for 56 years. If you are interested, contact Debbie Hinton, Nominating Committee co-chair, at dhinton1234567890@gmail.com before December 1, 2015.