Announcements

HUMAN RESOURCES CLINIC—PARTNERING IN SUPPORT OF SCIENCE

The Office of Human Resources is hosting an HR knowledge and personal connection event on August 3, 2021 for the scientific and administrative community. Join us for a full day of sessions hosted by HR subject matter experts. These sessions will cover information regarding: benefits, compensation, performance management, CIVIL, and more. Attendees may select the session(s) they would like to attend scheduled throughout the day. Registration is available on Eventbrite and additional information can be found on the event page. This is a great opportunity to connect with OHR and to learn more about the OHR divisions!

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY OBSSR WEBINAR

To attend, please register for the webinar at:

Intramural investigators, fellows, and staff are invited to join the Associate Director, Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences research (OBSSR), for virtual sessions to identify needs, discuss opportunities and available resources to support intramural research.

The OBSSR is a resource for both integrating behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) into the broader biomedical research enterprise and for supporting BSSR at NIH. BSSR is broader than many realize, and your research areas may fit its mission. BSSR includes (but is not limited to) research topics such as attention, learning, and memory; developmental processes; obesity; disease management (medical errors, adherence, provider-patient interactions); language and communication disorders; bio-psychosocial processes related to mental health; pain, injury, and disability (pathophysiology, functional impairments); sensation and perception; sleep disorders; social processes and determinants; stress, trauma, and resilience; and health and well-being.

The webinar is designed for OBSSR to hear about issues and explore potential ways to provide support for researchers who are interested in behavioral and social sciences related topics and/or integrating BSSR into other research areas. Challenges already identified by IRP researchers in conducting BSSR include difficulty in finding expertise and collaborators and a lack of networking activities.

OBSSR is dedicated to exploring ways our office can assist in reaching out to investigators to identify potential collaborators, enhancing communications efforts, highlighting intramural accomplishments in the behavioral and social sciences and offering opportunities for funding support.

Funding Support: OBSSR has participated in the NIH Bench-to-Bedside Program awards since 2009 and has funded an average of one award per year and provided bench-to-bedside support to several programs. In addition, OBSSR has been able to provide some direct support to programs requesting assistance. Feedback from previously and currently supported IRP investigators has helped OBSSR understand what kinds of support can be most helpful, but we would like to hear from a wider group from the IRP.

OBSSR hosted two sessions in Jun will be hosting another on July 8. If you have interest in participating or would like further information, please contact the OBSSR-IRP email listed below.

Please contact OBSSR at OBSSRIRP@od.nih.gov with any questions.

THE PROMISE OF NHLBI DATA SCIENCE WORKSHOP

  • Tuesday, July 20, 2021 to Wednesday, July 21, 2021 (registration required)

NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is hosting a virtual workshop where participants will explore "Big Data" generated from NHLBI observational cohort studies, registries, repositories (e.g., BioData Catalyst, BioLINCC, GenTAC), as well as basic science studies. In addition, three speakers will highlight trustworthy AI systems and the role of datasets and data scientists; machine learning for personalized healthcare; and the importance of diversity in STEM. Speakers will also discuss the value of collaborations between domain experts (including computer scientists, engineers, and statisticians), and much more. Finally, workshop attendees will participate in a needs assessment to help ensure diverse heart, lung, blood, and sleep data science participation.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

APPROACHES TO EFFECTIVE THERAPEUTIC MANAGEMENT OF PAIN FOR PEOPLE WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE

  • Wednesday, July 21, 2021, 11:30 am to Thursday, July 22, 2021, 5:30 pm (registration required)

This trans–National Institutes of Health (NIH) workshop will focus on sickle cell disease pain. During this virtual workshop, which is free and open to the public, participants will discuss the current state of science in sickle cell disease acute and chronic pain as well as identify critical knowledge gaps and research challenges. They will also brainstorm challenges and opportunities for optimizing management of this understudied pain condition in an underserved population. The agenda includes expert presentations; panel and roundtable discussions; and patient perspectives.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) are leading the meeting planning for this workshop, in collaboration with several other NIH Institutes.

FOOD INSECURITY, NEIGHBORHOOD FOOD ENVIRONMENT, AND NUTRITION HEALTH DISPARITIES: STATE OF THE SCIENCE

  • Tuesday, September 21, 2021, 12:30 pm to Thursday, September 23, 2021, 5:30 pm (registration required)

Nutrition plays an important role throughout our lives in promoting health and preventing disease. But where we live or how much money we earn can affect our ability to access or afford healthy food choices. Ensuring food security and access to healthy food are key to preventing disparities in a variety of diet-related diseases and conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer. Research has shown that socioeconomic status, food insecurity and the neighborhood food environment are linked to diet quality and nutrition-related health outcomes. Elucidating the role of these social conditions on diet and nutritional status could help address and prevent diet-related health disparities and promote health equity.

WALS VIRTUAL LECTURES WILL RESUME IN SEPTEMBER

The NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) will resume on September 22 and will continue to be held virtually until further notice. The season will kick off with a talk by Yishi Jin (University of California-San Diego), whose lab focuses on discovering the mechanisms underlying the development and function of the nervous system using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The lab’s ultimate goal is to connect the studies of basic mechanisms to the understanding of human neurological disorders and neuronal repair.

The lectures will also be archived for later viewing. Details of the 2021-2022 speakers will be listed on the WALS website soon: https://oir.nih.gov/wals. For any questions or requests, please contact the WALS office at WALSoffice@od.nih.gov.

CHECK OUT OTHER NIH LECTURES

NIH Calendar of Events: https://calendar.nih.gov/lega/app/MCalWelcome.aspx

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE HISTORY TALKS

These talks sponsored by the NLM History of Medicine Division promote awareness and use of NLM and related historical collections for research, education, and public service in biomedicine, the social sciences, and the humanities. The series also supports the commitment of the NLM to recognize the diversity of its collections—which span ten centuries, encompass a range of digital and physical formats, and originate from nearly every part of the globe—and to appreciate the diversity of individuals who value these collections and use them to advance their research, teaching, and learning.

All talks are free and during the remainder of 2020 will be held virtually, live-streamed globally and subsequently archived by NIH VideoCasting. Read interviews with our speakers on our blog Circulating Now for a variety perspectives on the history of medicine and the historical collections at NLM. Stay informed about NLM History Talks on Twitter at #NLMHistTalk.

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Peril in the Air: Pollution Activism on Film

2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET—This program will be live-streamed globally, and archived, by NIH VideoCasting.

Sarah Eilers, MA, MLS—Archivist/Manager, Historical Audiovisuals, NLM History of Medicine Division

Angela Saward, BA, MTA, Research Development Specialist (Moving Image & Sound), Research Development Team, Collections & Research, Wellcome Collection

Moving images are a powerful medium for conveying the impact of polluted air on humans and other living things. This often-invisible menace can have catastrophic effects. In 1948, the Donora Smog in Pennsylvania killed 20 and sickened half of the town’s population, while in the UK the Great Smog of 1952 led to 12,000 deaths—and a Clean Air Act just four years later. Add to these events Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring, and the modern environmental movement took root. Legislative and societal changes followed on both sides of the Atlantic. In this presentation of select US and British films on air pollution and the environment, Sarah Eilers and Angela Saward explore the intersection of filmmaking, government, and medicine as they not only respond to, but attempt to drive, this shift of the collective mind. Vivid imagery and dramatic narration make clear the power of film to tell a story that words alone often do not.

Thursday, October 28, 2021

A Family Drama: The Sexual Politics of Smallpox Vaccination in the Spanish Empire

2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET—This program will be live-streamed globally, and archived, by NIH VideoCasting.

Farren Yero, PhD—Postdoctoral Associate, Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, Duke University

In 1804, the Spanish Crown introduced the smallpox vaccine to its empire, along with orders that vaccination be voluntary and that parents had a right to consent. Yet as families weighed the meaning of this decision, doctors turned to the slave trade, securing the vaccine and its future through bondage. Analyzing this polemic and the politicization of preventative health, my talk draws on collections of the NLM History of Medicine Division, including institutional regulations and vaccination rosters from the Spanish Americas, to trace the vaccine through the greater Caribbean and ask how and why colonial authorities selectively protected voluntary vaccination. Foregrounding the methods by which the Spanish sought parental consent, I examine the expectations about parenthood, childrearing, and the family that underscored their efforts, demonstrating how long-standing investments in a patriarchal familial order were reanimated through the conservation and dissemination of the vaccine. In doing so, the talk highlights the racial and sexual politics of vaccination and its contested relationship to slavery, freedom, and motherhood in the Atlantic World.

This page was last updated on Thursday, February 3, 2022

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