January–February 2017 | NIH Intramural Research Program

Singing the Same Tune

A Conversation with World-renowned Cellist Yo-Yo Ma

BY EMILY PETRUS, NINDS

“How can I keep from singing?” intoned NIH Director Francis Collins as he played his guitar to the tune of the 1800s hymn, “Always Rejoicing.” The lyrics had a new meaning; who wouldn’t want to sing when you’re accompanied by a world-renowned cellist like Yo-Yo Ma.

Trans-NIH Recruits

Meet Six New Stadtman Investigators

BY LAURA STEPHENSON CARTER

In 2009, the NIH launched the Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator Program, which aims to recruit a more diverse group of scientists pursuing interests across the biomedical-research spectrum. Meet the six Stadtman Investigators—all women—from the 2013–2014 recruitment cycle: Shahinaz Gadalla (NCI-DCEG); Romina Goldszmid (NCI-CCR); Astrid Haase (NIDDK); Katrin Mayer-Barber (NIAID); Robin Stanley (NIEHS, pictured); and Britton Trabert (NCI-DCEG).

Innovations: John O’Shea and Arthritis Drug

Government Collaboration with Industry Helps Drug Development

BY ADAM THOMAS

You may have seen ads on television for Xeljanz (tofacitinib), a drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Don’t ask me where the name came from. But I can tell you that the drug itself was the brainchild of NIH physician and immunologist John O’Shea.

From the Deputy Director for Intramural Research

Let the Cores Roar

CREx Will Enable Access to Core Services across the IRP

BY MICHAEL GOTTESMAN, DDIR, AND ANDY BAXEVANIS, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY, OIR

Scientific resources abound in the Intramural Research Program (IRP) from cores creating antibodies to growing zebrafish. There are so many resources, in fact, that it can be difficult to know what they are and how you can use them. One of the action items arising from the IRP’s long-term plan is finding ways to make most core resources, equipment, and facilities accessible to all scientists throughout the NIH.

News Briefs

Introducing James Gilman (pictured), the new CEO for the NIH Clinical Center; big water, thermal storage tanks being built on campus.

Colleagues: Recently Tenured

Meet your recently tenured colleagues: Aimée Kreimer (NCI-DCEG); Karin Peterson (NIAID); Hari Shroff (NIBIB, pictured); and Li Yang (NCI-CCR).

Research Briefs

Intramural research highlights: Cellular immunotherapy for cancer; decline in hearing loss; veterans endure severe pain; cerebral malaria’s deadly agents; identifying potential therapies against drug-resistant malaria; Zika vaccine trial; new way to replace aortic valve; faster wound healing; gene therapy for treating Niemann-Pick disease; no safe level of smoking; cigarette smoking during pregnancy linked to changes in baby’s immune system.

An Equation for Global Health Equity

Dr. Paul Farmer Gives 2016 Barmes Lecture

BY LESLEY EARL, NCI

To improve global health equity, “what you really need are the staff, stuff, space, and systems,” said physician Paul Farmer, co-founder of the nonprofit Partners in Health and professor and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School (Boston). “Research has to be linked to training, [to] local capacity building, and to actually taking care of people.”

NIEHS Science Days Festival Celebrates Research

Nuclear Hormone Receptors Featured

BY KELLY LENOX, NIEHS

Not to be outdone by the NIH Research Festival, which takes place in Bethesda each fall, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) holds its own annual celebration of science: Science Days, which took place November 3–4, 2016. This year’s theme was nuclear hormone receptors, which mediate environmental impacts on the body.

News You Can Use

The NIH Library invites NIHERs to use its new digital production studio; check out Nephele, NIAID’s newest resource for microbiome data analysis.

Obituaries 2016

Former NIH scientists and other NIH-affiliated people who died in 2016.

From the Annals of NIH History

NIH Female Surgeon, A Pioneer in Heart Surgery

In 1960, Nina Starr Braunwald, who was the first woman to be board-certified as a cardiac surgeon, led the NIH team that was the first to replace a human mitral valve (which she also designed).

The SIG Beat

NEWS FROM AND ABOUT THE NIH SCIENTIFIC INTEREST GROUPS

The Global Health Interest Group reports on its symposium that featured talks on portable technologies, Earth-observing satellites, developmental economics, social media, and infrastructure improvements; New SIG: Neuroscience Clinical Trials.

Announcements

New Cajal drawings in Building 35A; Pi Day; FARE awards applications process begins soon; DeMystifying Medicine in underway; History of Medicine lectures; other lectures and events

This page was last updated on Monday, April 11, 2022