Tuesday, December 7, 2021, 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm (registration required)
This December, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) marks 10 years of harnessing the power of translational science to speed solutions for many diseases at a time. The Center's mission is to remove or bypass scientific and operational obstacles that stand in the way of getting more treatments to more people more quickly. NCATS does this by advancing translational science.
Translational science looks at the big picture to identify common pitfalls and develop innovative solutions, thus enabling promising discoveries to become real-world applications that improve people’s health. NCATS' activities exemplify translational science principles, such as boundary-crossing collaborations, bold and rigorous approaches, and efficiency and speed.
To commemorate its 10-year anniversary and usher in the next decade of bold solutions, NCATS is hosting a virtual event to highlight how its innovative and team-science approach addresses unmet needs. Featured topics will spotlight the transformational power of data, novel approaches for de-risking a drug’s journey along the preclinical pathway, crosscutting solutions for many diseases, and high-impact innovations in clinical research. Speakers will provide perspective on remaining roadblocks and new opportunities through conversations and lightning round talks.
This event is free and open to the public. Click here to register.
Wednesday, December 8, 2021, 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm
The annual Astute Clinician Lecture, part of NIH's Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS), recognizes U.S. scientists who have observed unusual clinical occurrences and, by investigating them, have opened an important new avenue of research. This year's talk will be presented by IRP senior investigator Brigitte Widemann, M.D. Dr. Widemann is Deputy Clinical Director for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Center for Cancer Research, chief of its Pediatric Oncology Branch, and head of its Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Section. Trained as a pediatric oncologist with expertise in drug development, she has applied her expertise to study genetic tumor predisposition syndromes, in particular neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) and very rare pediatric and adult solid tumors.
Widemann's pioneering research on NF1 resulted in the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved medical therapy, the MEK inhibitor selumetinib, for children with NF1 and inoperable, symptomatic plexiform neurofibromas in 2020. For the Astute Clinician Lecture, she will describe her lab's recent successes as well as her current and future direction.
Thursday, December 9, 2021, 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm (registration required)
Nii Addy, Ph.D., will be the next guest speaker for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Director’s Innovation Speaker Series. Dr. Addy is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the Yale School of Medicine.
NIMH established the Director’s Innovation Speaker Series to encourage broad, interdisciplinary thinking in the development of scientific initiatives and programs, and to press for theoretical leaps in science over the continuation of incremental thought. Innovation speakers are encouraged to describe their work from the perspective of breaking through existing boundaries and developing successful new ideas, as well as working outside their primary area of expertise in ways that have pushed their fields forward. We encourage discussions of the meaning of innovation, creativity, breakthroughs, and paradigm-shifting.
Dr. Addy directs an NIH-funded research program investigating cholinergic, dopaminergic, and L-type calcium channel mechanisms mediating substance use and mood disorders. In this talk, Dr. Addy will share his experiences and journey as a Black scientist, mentor, mentee, sponsor, diversity, equity, inclusion leader, and mental health advocate.
Click here to register for this seminar on Zoom.
Friday, December 10, 2021, 9:00 am to 4:45 pm (registration required)
The social unrest and protests that erupted in 2020 helped spur the need for the American people to have serious discussions about race and the systems that have contributed to growing health disparities and disproportionate environmental exposures. In one of his first acts after being inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. This directive encourages a comprehensive approach for promoting equity for all, especially people of color.
This virtual workshop, organized by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), will offer opportunities for learning and discussion with environmental justice (EJ) researchers, grassroots organizations, and members of the community. The goal is to identify possible collaborative solutions to environmental health disparities and EJ issues that affect communities that have been disproportionately impacted.
The workshop is free and open to the public, but preregistration is required.
Wednesday, December 15, 2021, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm (registration required)
From personal to structural, racism may be understood as an endemic public health threat with crisis-level effects. Mindfulness practices, originating from numerous cultures and spiritual traditions, are an active area of scientific investigation for health and other benefits. Mindfulness is often studied for its internal effects in individuals. However, many important research questions remain underexplored. For example, how might mindfulness practices be applied to disrupt bias and minimize racism’s harms? How might the science of mindfulness be directed toward further exploring their external, interpersonal, and systemic effects?
Rhonda V. Magee, J.D., professor of law, long-time mindfulness teacher, scholar of contemplative education, and practitioner of mindfulness, will deliver the 2021 Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary Therapies. Professor Magee will describe some of the research on how mindfulness has been shown to help us, for example, increase our emotional resilience; address fears, anxieties, and other emotions; choose how we will respond to injustice; and change unhelpful habits. She will also discuss an exciting new area of study: focusing on external mindfulness and its effects as individuals interact with others, their environments, and the array of challenges facing us all.
The annual Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary Therapies was established to honor the founding director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (renamed the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health in 2014).
Advanced registration is required to view this virtual lecture.
Thursday, December 16, 2021, 11:00 am to Friday, December 17, 2021, 5:30 pm (register by December 10)
This virtual workshop, hosted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), in coordination with several other NIH institutes, will look at ways to help communities adopt and implement prevention and treatment interventions for women and girls with mental health, substance use, and cardiopulmonary diseases, and who live in medically underserved communities. The workshop will focus on how to open up opportunities for more gender-relevant, evidence-based interventions that affect this population.
Experts, including researchers, clinicians, and community and federal partners, will come together to explore care models that integrate clinical and population health into well-coordinated, data-driven systems of care. The workshop will also examine how to improve health outcomes for women and girls, using an integrated set of evidence-based practices that can be implemented across the entire continuum of community health care services.
Register for this workshop by December 10.
