Announcements

FOR A LISTING OF OTHER EVENTS AT NIH

Go to: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/events

PLAGUE AT THE GOLDEN GATE

More than 100 years before the deadly COVID-19 pandemic set off a nationwide wave of fear and anti-Asian sentiment, an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco’s Chinatown unleashed a similar crisis. The death of a Chinese immigrant in 1900 would have likely gone unnoticed if a sharp-eyed medical officer hadn’t discovered a swollen black lymph node on his body—evidence of one of the world’s most feared diseases, bubonic plague. Dr. Joseph Kinyoun, a leader in the diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases and the father of the NIH, confirmed this first case of bubonic plague in San Francisco and then worked tirelessly to halt the spread of the disease.

Plague at the Golden Gate is a fascinating medical mystery and timely examination of the tense relationship between the medical community, city powerbrokers, and San Francisco’s Chinese-American community. The documentary tells the gripping story of the desperate race against time to save San Francisco and the nation from the deadly plague. Based on David K. Randall’s Black Death at the Golden Gate, the film is directed by Li-Shin Yu (The Chinese Exclusion Act) and features interviews with a fascinating range of medical experts, authors, and Asian-American historians.

Kinyoun created and directed the Hygienic Laboratory (1887-1899), the nation’s first federal laboratory of medical bacteriology which later became the NIH. His archives were shared by his grandchildren (including Joseph Houts, author of Joseph James Kinyoun: Discoverer of Bubonic Plague in America and Father of the National Institutes of Health).

FIRST GENOMIC DATASET

NIH’s All of Us Research Program has launched its first genomic dataset. The dataset includes whole genome sequences of nearly 100,000 participants, with nearly 50% from individuals who self-identify with a racial or ethnic minority historically underrepresented in medical research. This data is available through the new Controlled Tier of the Researcher Workbench alongside more granular demographic data, additional electronic health record data, as well as information from participants’ Fitbit devices, survey responses, and physical measurements.

More than 60 NIH intramural researchers have registered to use the All of Us data and 16 began working within the Controlled Tier in the first week of its availability. Any NIH researcher can register for access and complete the All of Us research training to start using the Researcher Workbench. For more information, please contact Margaret Farrell, Science Communications Team Lead at the All of Us Research Program.

DATA SCIENCE MASTER’S DEGREE FELLOWSHIP

CARD at the National Institute on Aging, has partnered with NIH’s Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences and the University of Maryland at Baltimore to offer a unique, research-intensive master’s level fellowship program to build a stronger, more diverse and inclusive community in biomedical data science. 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 research performed at CARD with experts in the field of Alzheimer’s and related dementia research. Beyond their coursework, as a member of the research team, fellows can utilize and refine new skills while working with real data curated at CARD.

UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING SPORT-RELATED BRAIN INJURY

  • Annual Office of Disease Prevention Early-Stage Investigator Lecture (webinar)
  • Wednesday, May 11, 2022; 11:00 a.m. to noon ET
  • For more information and to register: Click here

Christine Baugh, Ph.D., M.P.H. (University of Colorado School of Medicine) will discuss understanding and preventing sport-related injury using a public health framework. She will answer such questions as “What are the health consequences of sport-related brain injury and how can we reduce their harm?” This lecture highlight early-career scientists who are poised to become future leaders in disease-prevention research.

NIH OFFICE OF DISEASE PREVENTION (ODP):PREVENTION IN FOCUS WEBINAR

  • “FIERCE Exercise Study: A Community-Based Cancer Prevention Trial in Metabolically Unhealthy Black Women”
  • Friday, May 20, 2022; 1:00–2:00 p.m. ET
  • Registration is required and open to the public: Click here

Dr. Lucile Adams-Campbell and Dr. Chiranjeev Dash (both from Georgetown University Medical Center) will describe a community-engaged approach to cancer prevention research at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and will summarize results from the Focused Intervention of Exercise to Reduce Cancer (FIERCE) study. The FIERCE trial is a community-based randomized controlled trial to examine the effect of exercise on metabolic syndrome components, obesity, and cancer-related biomarkers among metabolically unhealthy African American women at high risk of breast cancer. There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. For more information, please contact Dr. Jennifer N. Baumgartner in the ODP at PreventionInFocus@nih.gov. This webinar will be captioned in real time. Individuals needing reasonable accommodations should contact Dr. Jennifer N. Baumgartner at PreventionInFocus@nih.gov. Requests should be made at least five business days before the event. Can’t be there? A recording of this presentation will be available on the ODP website approximately two weeks after the session.

About the Prevention In Focus Webinar Series: Coordinated by the ODP, Prevention in Focus webinars—previously known as the Prevention Scientific Interest Group (SIG) Webinar Series—feature talks from prevention science experts and thought leaders making advances in public health. Topics range from screening and physical activity to health disparities and other topics central to the practice and science of prevention. The webinar series provides an opportunity for the broader scientific community and members of the public to learn about the latest prevention research findings directly from experts working in the field.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON LECTURE SERIES (WALS)

The NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) is the highest-profile lecture program at the NIH. Some of the WALS talks will be held in person; all are videocast. Lectures will be archived. For more on the NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series and to see which lectures will be in person, go to https://oir.nih.gov/wals.

May 4 (in-person and videocast): “Toward Personalization of HIV Treatment and Prevention”; Rolla E. Dyer Lecture; Namandjé N. Bumpus, Ph.D. (John Hopkins Medicine) Antiretroviral therapy has markedly reduced morbidity and mortality for persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Individual tailoring of antiretroviral regimens has the potential to further improve the long-term management of HIV through the mitigation of treatment failure and drug-induced toxicities.

May 11 (in-person and videocast): “Mechanisms of Activation of the EGF Receptor”; John Kuriyan, Ph.D. (University of California, Berkeley); Dr. Kuriyan’s research concerns the atomic-level structure and mechanism of the enzymes and molecular switches that carry out cellular signal transduction. His laboratory uses x-ray crystallography to determine the three-dimensional structures of proteins involved in signaling, as well as biochemical, biophysical, and cell biological analyses to elucidate mechanisms.

May 18: “Should Older Adults with Diabetes and Obesity Lose Weight?”; Robert S. Gordon Jr. Lecture; Rena R. Wing, Ph.D. (Brown University); Whether older individuals with diabetes and obesity should be encouraged to lose weight remains controversial. Observational studies have suggested that weight loss in older adults may be associated with increased risk of mortality, but this conclusion may be due to unintentional weight loss. A randomized trial in which some individuals are assigned to a weight loss program is the best way to address the question of whether intentional efforts to lose weight are appropriate for older individuals who have diabetes and obesity.

May 25 (in-person and videocast): “Genomic Basis of Breast Cancer Progression in Blacks”; Olufunmilayo Olopade, M.D. (University of Chicago); A leader in cancer genetics, Dr. Olopade studies familial forms of cancers, molecular mechanisms of tumor progression in high-risk individuals as well as genetic and non-genetic factors contributing to tumor progression in diverse populations. Her current laboratory research is focused on using whole genome technologies and bioinformatics to develop innovative approaches to democratize precision health care for all and thereby reduce global health disparities.

June 1: “The Future of Non-invasive Functional Imaging in the Era of Big Data”; NIH Director’s Lecture; Damien Fair, Ph.D. (University of Minnesota); The Fair laboratory focuses on mechanisms and principles that underlie the developing brain. The majority of this work uses functional MRI and resting state functional connectivity MRI to assess typical and atypical populations. Dr. Fair is the co-director of the new Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain.

Tuesday, June 7, 3:00–400 p.m. (in-person and videocast): Molecular Genetic Mechanisms in Neuronal Stress and Maintenance; Yishi Jin, Ph.D. (UCSD School of Medicine); The Jin lab research focuses on the molecular genetic mechanisms underlying the development and function of the nervous system using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The transparency, defined anatomy, and rapid life cycle of this organism greatly facilitate our studies at the subcellular resolution. Moreover, the entre cell lineage and connectome are known, enabling functional understanding at deep levels.

June 8 (in-person and videocast): “Charting the Path for Alzheimer’s Prevention: From Biomarkers to Therapeutic Targets”; Florence Mahoney Lecture on Aging; Yakeel Quiroz, Ph.D. (Harvard Medical School); Dr. Quiroz is Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. She currently serves as Director of the MGH Familial Dementia Neuroimaging Lab, and Multicultural Alzheimer’s Prevention Program (MAPP). (This will be a hybrid lecture, previously advertised as being on June 22, is now June 8 in person at Lipsett Amphitheather and on NIH VideoCast.)

June 15 (in-person and videocast): “Identifying Novel Genes That Impact T Cell Effector Function”; Gillian Griffiths, Ph.D. (University of Cambridge); Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) play a critical role in the immune system, recognizing and destroying virally infected cells and cancer targets with remarkable specificity. These cells are extraordinarily efficient serial killers that rapidly deliver their lethal hit using precisely polarized secretion of cytolytic proteins from modified lysosomes to destroy their targets. CTLs provide a fascinating system in which to understand the cell biology of secretion in a specialized cell type.

June 29 (in-person and videocast): “Dynamic Organelle Shape and Function During Herpesvirus Infection”; Ileana Cristea, Ph.D. (Princeton University); Ileana Cristea’s laboratory focuses on characterizing mechanisms of cellular defense against viruses, as well as mechanisms used by viruses to manipulate these critical cellular processes. Towards these goals, she has promoted the integration of virology with proteomics and bioinformatics.

CLINICAL CENTER GRAND ROUNDS

May 11: Contemporary Clinical Medicine: Great Teachers; “Music for Deaf Ears: Cochlear Implant-Mediated Perception of Music,” Charles J. Limb, M.D. (University of California at San Francisco)

May 18: Contemporary Clinical Medicine: Great Teachers; “Conducting and Overseeing Research: Lessons Learned,” Michael M. Gottesman, M.D. (DDIR and NCI)

May 25: Clinicopathologic Grand Rounds: Clinical Cases from the NIH Clinical Center; “Two Sides Of A Deadly Curve: Neurologic Post-Infectious Inflammatory Disease,” Peter Richard Williamson, M.D., Ph.D. (NIAID); David E. Kleiner, M.D., Ph.D. (NCI); Dima A. Hammoud, M.D. (Clinical Center); Seher Anjum, M.D. (NIAID)

NCCIH INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE RESEARCH LECTURE SERIES

  • Virtual Lectures, NCCIH Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series
  • On NIH VideoCast and NIH Facebook—no registration necessary
  • Webpage for more information—click here

Lecture series presented by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

May 18 (1:00–2:00 p.m. ET): “Well-Being and the Economic Burden of Disease: What Are We Learning from Cancer Survivors?”; Dr. Michelle Y. Martin University of Tennessee Health Science Center). Summary: With increases in early detection and improved cancer treatments, we can now celebrate that many survivors can lead a full and healthy life after completing treatment. But we also know that the cancer journey can be stressful from diagnosis onward and well into survivorship. A major area of stress is finances, such as stress from increased medical costs and possibly reduced income and work productivity. The impact of “financial toxicity” on patient well-being is an emerging area of research. Among Dr. Martin’s projects, she is multiple principal investigator of the Emotional Well-Being and Economic Burden Research Network (EMOT-ECON), a new initiative to advance research and generate knowledge about the impact of the economic burden of disease on emotional well-being. Based on her background in cancer survivorship, she will also present an overview of the cancer survivorship journey and where there are needs to better understand (1) patients’ and survivors’ experiences of cancer and (2) how the economic burden of disease can affect the well-being of survivors. Projects and interventions from the speaker’s work and others will be highlighted. To request sign language interpreting services or other reasonable accommodations to participate, contact the NCCIH Clearinghouse at info@nccih.nih.gov or 1-888-644-6226 by Thursday, May 11.

Thursday, June 23 (12:00 noon–1:00 p.m. ET): “Advancing Research on Emotional Well-Being and Regulation of Eating”; Elissa Epel, Ph.D. (University of California, San Francisco); Summary: Given the rising levels of global stress, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, loneliness and mental health problems are on the rise, adding to the burden of chronic diseases. Most health-oriented research takes a harm-reduction approach, i.e., identifying and mitigating problems to reduce disease burden. Understanding and promoting emotional well-being (EWB) may yield another important strategy to accomplish this and significantly improve people’s health. Little has been known about how to best increase EWB in ways that also improve health. Dr. Epel is principal investigator of a new research network to develop resources and a multidisciplinary community of scholars focused on researching EWB—its links to physical health, interventions that could best increase it, and the processes that explain how EWB impacts health. In addition to this work, Dr. Epel will discuss how stress and compulsive eating are interrelated, a longtime research focus for her. She and her team have developed interventions, including mindfulness-based training modules, as adjuvant components of treatment. The speaker will review findings and lessons learned from clinical trials, the lab, and the field. To request sign language interpreting services or other reasonable accommodations to participate, contact the NCCIH Clearinghouse at info@nccih.nih.gov or 1-888-644-6226 by Thursday, June 16.

IMMUNOLOGY INTEREST GROUP SEMINAR SERIES

Wednesday, May 4: Florent Ginhoux (STAR), “Myeloid Cell Heterogeneity”

May 18: TBD

May 25: Garry Nolan (Stanford), “Cancer rearranges the rules in tissue building blocks. A new class of targets for therapy?”

June 1: Joonsoo Kang (University of Massachusetts), “Regulation of mucocutaneous inflammation and innate lymphocytes by cholesterol metabolites”

June 8: Akiko Iwasaki (Yale), “Immune response to SARS-CoV-2”

June 15: Gillian Griffiths, WALS University of Cambridge, Identifying novel genes that impact T cell effector function

June 22: Vishva Dixit (Genentech), “Why so many ways to die?”

June 29: 2022: Hans-Reimer Rodewald (Helmholtz), “Deconvolution of hematopoiesis and immune responses by Polylox barcoding”

NIH DIRECTOR’S SEMINAR SERIES (2021–2022)

  • Fridays at noon
  • Seminars will be videocast on videocast.nih.gov

May 6: Kandice Tanner (NCI-CCR), “Microenvironment regulation of metastasis”

June 17: Zayd Khaliq (NINDS), “Inhibitory circuit control of dopamine neuron subpopulations”

July 15: Vincent Munster (NIAID), “The ecology of emerging coronaviruses, from host reservoir to disease”

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE (NLM) HISTORY TALKS

The NLM History of Medicine Division sponsors talk to 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 foreground the voices of people of color, women, and individuals of a variety of cultural and disciplinary backgrounds who value these collections and use them to advance their research, teaching, and learning.

Thursday, May 5, 2022: 6th Annual Michael E. DeBakey Lecture in the History of Medicine: A Laboratory of Humanitarianism: Military and Civilian Captivity during the First World War; Matthew Stibbe (Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom, and 2019 NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellow)

Thursday, June 23, 2022: Merleau-Ponty, Descartes, and the Meaning of Painting; William D. Adams (Former Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Former President, Colby College)

Thursday, July 14, 2022: Islamic Medical Manuscripts in the National Library of Israel Collections; Samuel Thrope, Ph.D. (Curator, Islam and Middle East Collection, National Library of Israel, Islamic Medical Manuscripts in the National Library of Israel Collections): 11:00 a.m.–Noon ET—This talk will be live-streamed globally, and archived, by NIH VideoCasting.

Check website for rest of the schedule.

KUAN-TEH JEANG LECTURE

Please save the date for this virtual event co-sponsored by the NIH Office of Intramural Research and the NIH Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. The 2022 Annual Kuan-Teh Jeang Lecture is dedicated to the memory of the late Dr. Kuan Teh Jeang and will be held in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This year’s lecturer is NEI Director Michael Chiang.

PAIN MANAGEMENT THROUGH THE LENS OF WHOLE PERSON HEALTH

Panel sessions will focus on different aspects of the overall theme: Complexity of pain and the interplay of comorbidities, integration of whole-person tools and approaches, and implementation of whole-person approaches to pain management. The symposium will also feature “A Patient’s Perspective” presentation, and a Junior Investigator session. Keynote addresses will be given by Dr. Tracy Gaudet from the Whole Health Institute and Dr. Ruth Wolever from the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt University. Members of the extramural scientific community, the NIH Scientific community, health care providers and the public are invited to attend.

NIH VIVIAN W. PINN SYMPOSIUM

The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) is thrilled to host the 6th Annual Vivian W. Pinn Symposium. Convened by ORWH each year during National Women’s Health Week, this event honors the first full-time director of the office, Vivian W. Pinn. In her role as the ORWH director, one of her objectives was to increase the number of women in leadership roles in research and academic institutions and identify barriers that lead to what we know as the “leadership gap”. This year’s event highlights the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the careers of women scientists. Reshma Jagsi (University of Michigan) will present the keynote address followed by a discussion moderated by NIMH Director Joshua Gordon. The panel includes Marie Bernard, NIH’s Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity; Sonia Flores (University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus); and NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research Michael Lauer.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AMBASSADORS PROGRAM (TTAP)

TTAP is a free, part-time training opportunity to learn more about tech transfer while continuing to work in the lab. Participants will learn about biomedical invention development, commercialization, and entrepreneurship through an exciting multi-faceted curriculum. TTAP training includes a Tech Transfer Boot Camp to learn how a scientific discovery makes it to patients, hands on experience working with Tech Transfer Managers, communication skills development, networking with industry professionals, and more! Staff scientists, research fellows, postdocs, postbacs, and graduate students from 22 NIH Institutes and Centers (listed on the website) are eligible to apply. To find out more, visit the website, join the JUne 22 informational session, or contact [TT_Ambassadors@mail.nih.gov]

Previous ambassadors have pursued careers in a variety of fields, including technology transfer managers in universities and the federal government; patent agents and technical specialists at law firms; health science analysts in the federal government; drug reviewers at the FDA; study directors at pharmaceutical companies; scientists in the federal government and the biotech industry; and more.

TRANSITION TO INDUSTRY FELLOWSHIP FOR NCI-CCR POSTDOCS

The T2I is a two-year, paid fellowship supporting NCI Center for Cancer Research (CCR) post-docs or research fellows as they advance an invention toward a regulatory milestone, clinical trials, and subsequent commercialization. Fellows will spend 80% of their time in the lab focused on invention development research to move a basic science invention from the bench to commercialization. The remaining 20% of the fellow’s time is spent taking courses in technology transfer, business development, entrepreneurship, and small business grantsmanship. T2I fellows will also participate in the TTAP Boot Camp and are invited to join the rest of the TTAP program. Postdocs and research fellows from the NCI-CCR are eligible to apply—they must also be either an inventor on a patent or patent application or working on a project for which a patent or patent application has been filed or recommended for filing. To find out more, visit the website join the informational session on June 22, or contact T2I_Fellowship@mail.nih.gov.

This page was last updated on Tuesday, May 17, 2022

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