Features

An NIH Research Dynasty in Building 3

A Who’s Who of Biomedical Researchers

By HEATHER DOLAN

NIH’s Building 3 was once a researcher’s paradise. For more than half a century, it was chock-full of remarkable scientists and bustling with activity. Before it closed in 2001, it had housed some of NIH’s best biomedical investigators—pioneering malaria researchers, the first female board-certified heart surgeon, a fledging leader of the pharmaceutical industry, three future NIH directors, 15 scientists who were inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and five eventual Nobel laureates.

Clinical Center Welcomes Extramural Investigators

BY MAGGIE MCGUIRE, CC

NIH intramural investigators may soon have company at the NIH Clinical Center (CC) when a new grant program offers access to extramural researchers who want to partner with them.

A Pain-staking Intramural Research Program

NCCAM Has a New Scientific Director and a New Focus

BY HEATHER DOLAN

With the arrival of new scientific director Catherine Bushnell, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is redefining its intramural program. Bushnell, an internationally recognized pain and neuroscience researcher, has launched a program on pain research.

Of Monkeys, Mice, and Men

The Promise of Hematopoietic Stem Cells

BY HEATHER DOLAN

Cynthia Dunbar means business. Monkey business, that is. Dunbar, who heads the Laboratory of Molecular Hematopoiesis in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), is investigating human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), the precursors to all blood cell types. As it turns out, rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) and human HSCs are very similar.

A Decade of Innovation for Health

BY SILVIYA ZUSTIAK, NICHD

For the past 10 years, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) has harnessed the talents of engineers, biomedical researchers, and clinicians to tackle challenging medical problems. In June, NIBIB celebrated its 10th anniversary with a daylong scientific symposium that showcased the latest biomedical advances.

PI Profile Pages Go Live

The IRP Web Site To Offer Central Listing of NIH PIs

BY BEN CHAMBERS, SPECIAL TO THE NIH CATALYST

Finding information on the approximately 1,200 intramural principal investigators (PIs) spread across 23 NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) has often depended on networking with other scientists or browsing multiple Web sites. Until now.

Subra Suresh: At the Interface of Engineering and Biology

National Science Foundation Director Shares an Engineer’s Perspective on Malaria Research

BY CAROLYN GRAYBEAL, NIAAA

Engineer-scientists have long been intrigued by the physics of large organ systems such as the circulatory system and the skeletal system. But now, they are gaining insights into disease-induced changes in the physical properties of cells and molecules those systems.