Announcements

MASTER’S OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES (MPS) IN DATA SCIENCE

The newly formed Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (CARD) is offering a unique, high-quality master’s level fellowship program to build a diverse and inclusive community in biomedical data science and train health–care researchers to grow their data–science skills.

The goal of this program is to cultivate the next generation of data–science and bioinformatics professionals at CARD. Fellowship awardees will gain foundational knowledge in data analysis and data management through collaborative online instruction and direct consultation with experts in the field.

Beyond the coursework, fellows will have the opportunity to use and refine new skills they have learned working with real data curated at the CARD as Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) students. The selected candidates will receive a remunerated full-time IRTA position to work at CARD while studying the Master’s. During this time, fellows will get trained in data analysis. The fellowship will cover all costs for the Master’s degree.

The program is a 30-credit professional graduate degree that requires 30 credit hours with a mandated minimum GPA of at least 3.0. This degree program will allow qualified students who take specified FAES Data Science and Bioinformatics courses to transfer up to 15 credits to UMBC’s MPS in Data Science. All courses will be taught by highly experienced data science professionals.

Do not miss out on applying for this MPS in Data Science!

“A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO STOCKHOLM”

  • Office of NIH History Biomedical History Lecture Series
  • Thursday, May 27, 2021; noon to 1:00 p.m.
  • Videocast: https://videocast.nih.gov
Bob Lefkowitz

Nobel Laureate Bob Lefkowitz will review his dual career as a physician and a scientist with an emphasis on how the NIH “Yellow Beret” experience in the 1960s entirely changed the trajectory of hundreds of careers like his.

Dr. Lefkowitz is the James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at the Duke University Medical Center. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Lefkowitz transformed the understanding of what had by then become known as G-protein-coupled receptors when he cloned the gene for the beta2-adrenergic receptor. Today, more than half of all prescription drug sales are of drugs that target either directly or indirectly the receptors discovered by Dr. Lefkowitz and his colleagues.

Dr. Lefkowitz’s career path had taken a major turn when he came to the NIH in 1968 as a recent medical school graduate to fulfill his military draft requirement in the NIH Associates Training Program. Participants in this program were known as the Yellow Berets for their avoidance of combat duty in the Vietnam War.

For his May 26 lecture, the affable Dr. Lefkowitz will reminisce about his dual career as a physician and a scientist with an emphasis on how the Yellow Beret experience in the 1960s radically changed the trajectory of his and hundreds of others’ careers.

The ONHM biomedical history lecture series provides thoughtful examinations of past success and failures to guide our future. For more information go to https://history.nih.gov

“ARCHITECTURE AND MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT: A LOOK BACK AT ST. ELIZABETHS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.”

  • Office of NIH History Biomedical History Lecture Series
  • Thursday, June 24, 2021, 12:00:00 PM
  • Videocast: https://videocast.nih.gov

Sarah Leavitt, Ph.D., an historian previously with the National Building Museum, will be discussing the history of St. Elizabeth’s, the first federally operated psychiatric hospital in the United States. St. Elizabeths, founded in 1855, began as an American model of mental-health care. The first patient building, the Center Building, was constructed for white patients in the then-popular Kirkbride style, with wings extending from a central core to prioritize needs for people needing different stages of care. The campus expanded throughout its first century, hitting its peak population in the 1950s. Later construction went in different directions, including the Cottage Style and culminating in institutional, high-rise construction when the population became overwhelming and funding was low. St. Elizabeths, as the nation’s first, and for some of its history the only, federal mental-health hospital, provides a clear look at the changing nature of the U.S. government’s role in providing mental-health care for its citizens.

The ONHM biomedical history lecture series provides thoughtful examinations of past success and failures to guide our future. For more information go to https://history.nih.gov

NCI AT FREDERICK DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST LECTURE SERIES

Zhijian “James” Chen

DNA entering the cytoplasm of mammalian cells is a danger signal that triggers a potent innate immune response, including the production of type-I interferons and inflammatory cytokines. Dr. Chen and his colleagues have identified the enzyme cGAS as the sensor of cytosolic DNA that triggers the innate immune response. cGAS catalyzes the synthesis of cyclic GMP-AMP, which functions as a second messenger that activates the adaptor protein STING and the downstream pathway. The cGAS-STING pathway plays a critical role in immune defense, cellular senescence, autoimmune diseases and cancer. As such, this pathway must be tightly regulated. Dr. Chen will discuss his recent work on the regulation of the cGAS-STING pathway.

For additional information: https://ncifrederick.cancer.gov/scientificlibrary/Bibliography/Chen.aspx. For questions, please contact Tiffani Simons at conferenceplanning@mail.nih.gov. Individuals with disabilities who need Sign Language Interpreters and/or reasonable accommodation to participate in this event should contact the Federal Relay Service (1-800-877-8339). Requests should be made at least two business days in advance of the event.

“DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUMENT TO ASSESS PSYCHOSOCIAL SPIRITUAL HEALING: THE NIH HEALS”

Ann Berger

The Religion, Spirituality, and Health Scientific Interest Group (RSH-SIG) is pleased to announce that Ann Berger, M.D., M.S.N. will speak on “Development of an Instrument to Assess Psychosocial Spiritual Healing: The NIH HEALS” on Tuesday, May 18, at 2:00 p.m. For over 20 years, she has been chief of the Pain and Palliative Care Service at the NIH Clinical Center, where she has clinical, teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities. In addition, Dr. Berger coordinates a highly successful hospice and palliative care fellowship at the NIH Clinical Center. She developed the innovative NIH HEALS instrument which measures psychosocial spiritual healing of individuals with life-threatening and life challenging situations, which she will discuss in her presentation. This RSH-SIG presentation will be held virtually on the NIH VideoCast website and is free and open to the public.

The presentation will be recorded and available after the event on the NIH VideoCast website in the Past Events section. This event will be captioned. Individuals needing sign language interpretation will need to send a request to Joan Romaine at RSH-SIG@mail.nih.gov at least five business days prior to the event. Questions for Dr. Berger may be submitted in advance to RSH-SIG@mail.nih.gov.

For more information on the Religion, Spirituality, and Health Scientific Interest group see https://oir.nih.gov/sigs/religion-spirituality-health-scientific-interest-group.

ANNUAL KUAN-TEH JEANG LECTURE

Peter Kwong, Ph.D., senior investigator, and chief of the Structural Biology Section, Vaccine Research Center, NIAID, will present “On Being an Asian-American Structural Virologist: A Personal Perspective.” This annual lecture is dedicated to the memory of the late Kuan Teh Jeang and will be held in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

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NCCIH VIRTUAL LECTURES ON INTEGRATIVE HEALTH: SPRING 2021

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) offers two virtual lectures this spring on the theme of “Novel Approaches at the Intersection of Mental Health and Pain.” The lectures are part of NCCIH’s Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series.

  • May 4 and June 8, noon to 1:00 p.m. ET—attend either or both. (you can access the May 4 one through the archive)
  • No registration required.
  • Lectures will be streamed live and archived at NIH Videocast (links below) and Facebook Live.
  • More information: http://www.nccih.nih.gov/news/events/imlectures.

Eric Garland

May 4, 2021, noon to 1 p.m.: Eric Garland, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., The University of Utah, “Healing the Opioid Crisis with Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE): Clinical Efficacy and Neurophysiological Mechanisms.” Dr. Garland will discuss the testing and development of an integrative nondrug strategy to address addiction, chronic pain, and stress, that is based on affective neuroscience. It incorporates principles and practices from mindfulness meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and positive psychology. Videocast link: http://videocast.nih.gov/watch=41741.

Alicia Heapy

June 8, 2021, noon to 1 p.m.: Alicia Heapy, Ph.D., The Yale School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, “Cooperative Pain Education and Self-Management (COPES): A Technology-Assisted Intervention for Pain.” Evidence supports behavioral and self-management therapies for people with chronic pain, but there are many obstacles to implementation and uptake. Technology can address a number of barriers; Dr. Heapy will discuss research on a nondrug intervention—a form of CBT based on interactive voice response technology. Videocast link: http://videocast.nih.gov/watch=41743.

These lectures were rescheduled from 2020. For questions or requests, please email the NCCIH Clearinghouse at info@nccih.nih.gov.

WALS CONTINUES WITH VIRTUAL LECTURES

The NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) will be held most Wednesdays, 3:00–4:00 p.m., and can be viewed live online at videocast.nih.gov. The lectures will also be archived for later viewing. To view the full list of speakers this year and download the season’s poster, please visit the WALS web site at http://wals.od.nih.gov. For any questions or requests, please contact the WALS office at WALSoffice@od.nih.gov.

May 12: “Human Oncogenic Viruses: Nature, Discovery, and Running Around in Circles,” Yuan Chang, M.D. (University of Pittsburgh)

May 19: “The AI Path to Deeper and More Accurate Medicine,” Eric Topol, M.D., (Scripps Research Institute)

May 26: “Droplets, Droplets Everywhere…Cell Organization by Liquid-liquid Phase Separation,” Michael K. Rosen, Ph.D. (UT Southwestern Medical Center)

June 2: “Neurobiology of Social Behavior Circuits,” Catherine DuLac, Ph.D. (Harvard University

June 9: “Casting the Net Wide: the Role of Neutrophils in Chronic Diseases,” Mariana J. Kaplan, M.D. (NIAMS)

June 16 and 23: No WALS

June 30: “Protein Misfolding,” Marina Ramirez-Alvarado, Ph.D. (Mayo Clinic)

NLM HISTORY TALKS

The History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) hosts History Talks on selected Thursdays. All talks are free, livestreamed globally, and subsequently archived by NIH VideoCasting. Interviews with the speakers in this series are published in Circulating Now, the blog of the NLM History of Medicine Division. Explore informed about NLM History Talks on Twitter at #NLMHistTalk.

June 3, 2021: Allison Hill-Edgar, M.D., M.F.A. (New York Academy of Art and the Fenimore Art Museum; 2020 NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellow) will offer the 5th Annual Michael E. DeBakey Lecture in the History of Medicine, “Dissecting Gender: Reframing Anatomical History Through the Female Body.”

September 9, 2021: Sarah Eilers, M.A., M.L.S. (NLM History of Medicine Division) and Angela Saward, B.A., M.T.A. (Wellcome Collection) will speak jointly on “Peril in the Air: Pollution Activism on Film.”

October 28, 2021: Farren Yero, Ph.D. (Duke University) will speak on “A Family Drama: The Sexual Politics of Smallpox Vaccination in the Spanish Empire.”

This page was last updated on Monday, February 14, 2022

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