BY CYNTHIA DUNBAR (NHLBI) AND KATHERINE CALVO (CC)
We appreciate this opportunity to update the NIH community on the Assembly of Scientists’ (AOS) current activities and future priorities. NIH leadership, and the AOS has waxed and waned around specific events and issues that have influenced scientific productivity and quality of life at the NIH. In 2016, the AOS amplified its role by becoming an advisory body to the Deputy Director for Intramural Research.
Brian Berridge Tapped to Manage National Toxicology Program
BY VIRGINIA GUIDRY, NIEHS
The National Toxicology Program (NTP), a federal interagency program housed in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) intramural research program, welcomed Brian Berridge, formerly of GlaxoSmithKline, as its new associate director.
The Genomic Ascertainment Cohort is Open for Business
BY LESLEY EARL, NCI
The past decade has seen an explosion in the availability of genome-scale data—including chip genotypes, exome sequences, and even full-genome sequences—from hundreds of thousands of individuals. But even with all these data, it can be challenging for scientists to figure out the exact roles that particular genetic variants play in the development of diseases. Often, the problem is not the research itself, but the difficulty of finding enough people with the variant of interest.
Meet your recently tenured colleagues: Paul William Doetsch (NIEHS, pictured), Iain Fraser (NIAID), Claudia Palena (NCI-CCR), Mark Purdue (NCI-DCEG), and Wai T. Wong (NEI)
The first three-dimensional structure of DHHC proteins—proteins that contain a 50-amino-acid chain called the DCCT domain, act as enzymes, and are involved in many cellular processes, including cancer—explains how they function and may offer a blueprint for designing therapeutic drugs.
Read about recent intramural research advances: how to keep a cancer drug from causing hearing loss; chemical in cactus-like plant may control surgical pain; skin microbes promote tissue healing; eye could provide window to the brain after stroke; and more.
