Announcements

NIH BIG READ 2022

Book cover, “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi

Ibram X. Kendi, Ph.D., the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, will be our featured author and speaker for the NIH Big Read 2022, an annual event that invites the NIH community to read and discuss a timely book together.

The book of choice is Dr. Kendi’s 2019 New York Times #1 Best Seller, How to Be an Antiracist, in which the author asks us to engage in anti-racist actions towards equitable systemic changes. This NIH Big Read event will build upon recent diversity, equity, and inclusion-focused town halls and listening sessions led by IC-specific, EDI, and NIH UNITE efforts.

A Macarthur “Genius” Fellow and National Book Award Winner, Dr. Kendi is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. Through his guest lectures, talk show appearances, and his podcast, Be Antiracist with Ibram X. Kendi, he has encouraged communities worldwide to learn about and engage in discussions toward building a more equitable, antiracist society.

The NIH Big Read 2022 will feature community book discussions in September and will culminate with an exclusive NIH videocast event with Dr. Kendi in conversation with Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D., director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), on September 27 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. ET at https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=45979. Please note that the September 27 event will be exclusively for NIH staff.

Unlimited free access to the eBook and the audiobook is available to NIH staff from the NIH Library’s OverDrive platform and Libby app now through October 10. It is also available to purchase at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) NIH Bookstore in NIH Building 10 on the Bethesda campus. For details on obtaining the book and about the book discussions, see https://www.nihlibrary.nih.gov/events/bigread22 (NIH-only). 

For more information about the NIH Big Read or to submit questions for the conversation between Drs. Kendi and Pérez-Stable, e-mail NIHBigRead@mail.nih.gov by September 21.

The 2022 NIH Big Read is sponsored by the NIH Library, FAES, the NIH Office of the Director, NIH UNITE, and NIMHD.

NIMHD, the lead institute at NIH for research on minority health and health disparities, has championed research addressing crucial issues captured in Dr. Kendi’s book. Paired with Dr. Pérez-Stable’s more than 30 years of research addressing health disparities experienced by communities of color and other underserved populations, event attendees may anticipate an enriching exchange among scholars.

Sign language interpreting services are available upon request. Individuals who need interpreting services or other reasonable accommodations to participate in this event should contact the NIH Library at NIHBigRead@mail.nih.gov, 301-496-1080, at least five business days in advance.

WALS 2022–2023 SEASON

The NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) is the highest-profile lecture program at the NIH. Each season includes some of the biggest names in biomedical and behavioral research. The goal of the WALS is to keep NIH researchers abreast of the latest and most important research in the United States and beyond. All speakers are nominated by the NIH community; the next call for nominations will be in November.

WALS will be held most Wednesdays, 2:00–3:00 p.m., and can be viewed live online at videocast.nih.gov. The lectures will also be archived for later viewing. For any questions or requests, please contact the WALS office at WALSoffice@od.nih.gov. Nearly all lectures this season will be in person, and all are welcome to attend. However, because of unpredictable COVID restrictions, we are capping in-person attendance to under 50. If you would like to attend a lecture, simply email the WALS Office to check if we still have room.

Wednesday, September 7, 2021 to Wednesday, June 28, 2022

September 7: Annual Rolla E. Dyer Lecture Title TBA; Jill Banfield, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley

September 14: “Harnessing African Genomic Variation to Improve Health Globally”; Ambroise Wonkam, M.D., Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins Medicine)

September 21: “Molecular Origami: The Delicate Art of Protein Folding and Misfolding and Its Relevance to Health and Disease,” Judith Frydman, Ph.D., (Stanford University)

September 28: NIH Director’s Lecture; “The Secret Life of Introns,” Tracy Johnson, Ph.D. (UCLA)

October 5: Yom Kippur; no WALS

October 12: Annual Margaret Pittman Lecture; “Mutant p53 Activities in Mouse Tumor Models”; Gigi Lozano, Ph.D. (University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center)

October 19: Annual William E. Paul Lecture; “Gaining New Insights into ‘Fundamental Immunology’ Using Imaging and Computation” Ron Germain, M.D., Ph.D., NIH Distinguished Investigator (NIAID)

October 26: NIH Director’s Lecture; “Bitten: Why Are Some People More Attractive to Mosquitoes Than Others?”; Leslie B. Vosshall, Ph.D., HHMI Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer

November 2: Annual Astute Clinician Lecture; Title TBA; Steven Holland, M.D., NIH Distinguished Investigator; NIAID Scientific Director

November 9: No WALS talk scheduled yet

November 16: “Hematology from the Ground-Up: Lessons from Bloodless Worms”; Iqbal Hamza, Ph.D., (University of Maryland)

November 23: Thanksgiving, no WALS

November 30: Annual DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture; Title TBA; Sally L. Hodder, M.D. (West Virginia University)

Check website for the rest of the schedule: https://oir.nih.gov/wals

NIH Green Labs Program

Complete the 2022 Self-Assessment form by October 31, 2022 to participate in the 2022 GLP! To access the self-assessment form, please log in to the NIH network/VPN with your login credentials and secure your responses.

NIH developed the Green Labs Program (GLP), to increase the awareness and participation of laboratory personnel in sustainable laboratory practices, with the goal of protecting the environment and human health.

The NIH GLP is an initiative of the Sustainability Management Team to recognize laboratories who choose to reduce their environmental footprint by participating in NIH environmental initiatives.

The development of the program was a one-of-a-kind, collaborative initiative, which brought together NIH Environmental Management Program (EMP) Leads and Lab Managers to lay the groundwork in developing the GLP self-assessment form.

The program attempts to make it easier for researchers to learn about environmental stewardship by providing one source of information about relevant programs, policies, regulations, and mandates within the GLP self-assessment form. Any NIH staff representing a laboratory can assess their labs commitment towards incorporating environmental initiatives in the following categories:

  • Energy Conservation
  • Freezer Management
  • Water Conservation
  • Chemical Waste
  • Medical Pathological
  • Radioactive Waste
  • Waste reduction
  • Recycling
  • Green Chemistry
  • Inventory Management
  • Outreach

To learn about a specific year's GLP, please click on the links below:

For additional information, please contact the Green Labs Program Manager, bani.bhattacharya@nih.gov.

A note of appreciation: The NIH Green Labs Program is adapted from My Green Lab, a non-profit organization that has collaborated with many universities in California including UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Francisco, and UC Los Angeles, to develop a Green Lab assessment tool. The NIH Green Labs Program was developed to fit the circumstances and priorities of NIH laboratories

FAUCI TO PRESENT COVID-19 LECTURE ON SEPTEMBER 15

COVID-19 SIG Lecture Series

The COVID-19 Scientific Interest Group (SIG) lecture series was initiated in 2020 to facilitate communication of the ongoing scientific research to understand SARS-CoV-2 and treat COVID-19. Invited speakers share the latest research on a broad range of topics, including clinical findings, therapeutics, basic biology, epidemiology, and public health research. This lecture series runs from September through June, and occurs biweekly on Thursdays at noon. For more information, visit https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/covid-19-sig

September 15, 2022: Anthony Fauci, M.D., “Pandemic Preparedness and Response: Lessons from COVID-19”; videocast link: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=45929

October 6: Michelle Monje, M.D., Ph.D. (Stanford); Title TBD; Videocast: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=46143

October 20: Shane Crotty. Ph.D. (La Jolla Institute for Immunology), “Understanding Adaptive Immunity and Immune Memory to SARS-Cov-2 and COVID-19 RNA Vaccines, with Lessons for Vaccines Against Other Pathogens”; Videocast: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=46145

November 3: Andrea Edlow, M.D. (Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital), “SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Vaccination During Perinatal and Pregnancy”; Videocast: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=46161

November 17: Jessica Malaty Rivera (Rockefeller Foundation), Title TBD; Videocast: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=46159

December 1: Jesse Bloom, Ph.D. (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center), Title TBD; Videocast: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=46157

December 15–16: Virtual COVID-19 Research Workshop

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE APPROACHES FOR ANTIBIOTIC DISCOVERY

César de la Fuente

César de la Fuente, Ph.D., will discuss his research in a 30-minute talk on developing computational approaches for antibiotic design and discovery, followed by a 30-minute live Q&A at the 2022 Judith H. Greenberg Early Career Investigator Lecture. He is a Presidential Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. His lab uses computer programming to combine the power of machines and biology in an effort to prevent, detect, and treat infectious diseases.

The Judith H. Greenberg Early Career Investigator Lecture highlights the achievements of NIGMS’ early career grantees. Established in 2016 and originally called the NIGMS Director’s Early Career Investigator Lecture, the series was renamed in 2021 to honor NIGMS’ former Deputy Director Judith H. Greenberg, Ph.D., who retired​ in 2020 after 45 years of service to NIH.

The lecture is open to everyone in the scientific community. Anyone interested in viewing the event can attend via NIH videocast. Students and trainees are encouraged to register in Zoom so that they can participate in the live Q&A following the lecture. For more details, visit https://nigms.nih.gov/News/meetings/Pages/2022-nigms-directors-early-career-investigator-lecture.aspx. Participants requiring sign language interpretation and/or other reasonable accommodations should submit a request using the NIGMS contact form at least five days prior to the event.

SUBMIT INPUT FOR THE NIH-WIDE STRATEGIC PLAN FOR RESEARCH ON THE HEALTH OF WOMEN

  • DEADLINE: Thursday, September 29, 2022

The Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) published a request for information (NOT-OD-22-186) to solicit input from stakeholders across the scientific research, advocacy, and patient communities, as well as the public, to inform the topics that will be included in the forthcoming NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Research on the Health of Women, the goal of which will be to guide future NIH research efforts to improve the health of all women throughout the life course. ORWH plans to include information on recent public health events that have had a significant impact on the health of women, topics discussed at “Advancing NIH Research on the Health of Women: A 2021 Conference,” and recent scientific advances. All responses must be submitted electronically here by Thursday, September 29, 2022. Send any inquiries to NIHWideSPWH@nih.gov.

2022-2023 Principles of Clinical Pharmacology Course

This free online lecture series covers the fundamentals of clinical pharmacology as a translational scientific discipline. Topics include pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism and transport, drug therapy in special populations, drug discovery and development, and pharmacogenomics. This course will be of interest to graduate students, postdocs, medical and pharmacy students, scientists, and health professionals interested in expanding their pharmacology knowledge base. No textbook is required for this course. For questions, contact the course coordinator at odpcp@mail.nih.gov.

2022-2023 Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Clinical Research Course

This free online course teaches registrants on how to conduct clinical research effectively and safely. Graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, medical, dental, pharmacy, and nursing students and other health professionals are encouraged to enroll. The course textbook, Principles and Practice of Clinical Research, Fourth Edition (2018) is available for purchase from several online book retailers and at the NIH Building 10 FAES bookstore. For questions, contact the course coordinator at ippcr2@mail.nih.gov.

NIH Clinical Research Curriculum Certificate (CRCC) Program

  • Now Available!

Earn a formal certificate from the NIH Office of Clinical Research, Office of the Director, by completing a clinical research curriculum: https://ocr.od.nih.gov/crcc.html. The Clinical Research Curriculum Certificate (CRCC) program was developed for individuals engaged or interested in clinical or translational research. For questions, please email crcc@mail.nih.gov.

ANITA ROBERTS LECTURE

  • “Advancing the Development of Effective Therapies for Children and Adults with Rare Tumors” presented by Brigitte Widemann, M.D. (NCI)
  • Thursday, November 3, 2022; 11:00 a.m.–12:30 a.m.
  • Videocast: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=45832
  • 2022 Anita B. Roberts lecture sponsored by the NIH Women Scientists Advisors Committee
Brigitte Widemann

The “Distinguished Women Scientists at NIH” lecture series highlights the outstanding research achievements of woman scientists in the NIH Intramural Research Program. This seminar is dedicated to Dr. Anita Roberts and honors her role as an exceptional mentor and scientist.

Dr. Widemann is the chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch at NCI where she oversees basic, translational, and clinical research programs for children and young adults with hematologic and solid malignancies. Her research has been focused on drug development and early clinical trials for children with refractory solid tumors or genetic tumor predisposition syndromes, in particular neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Her findings resulted in the first approved medical therapy for children with NF1.

This page was last updated on Monday, October 10, 2022

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