Monday, November 16, 2020 to Thursday, December 17, 2020 (registration required)
The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD2) Network and Cancer Systems Biology Consortium (CSBC) are organizing a virtual, multi-date symposium designed to highlight research focused on understanding the mechanisms of cancer therapy resistance and sensitivity using systems-level approaches. The symposium is planned over five days with four scientific themes: approaches to design combination therapies (November 16); evolutionary biology approaches to understand resistance (November 17); the role of the tumor ecosystem in drug resistance and sensitivity (December 2); and tumor heterogeneity and cell plasticity during therapy (December 16 and 17).
Each virtual mini-symposium will be two hours in length (12:00 p.m. ET – 2:00 p.m. ET) and feature five talks from leaders in the fields of cancer biology and systems biology. The first session will kick-off with remarks from NCI Director Dr. Ned Sharpless at 11:30 a.m. ET. Sli.do-based question collection will be utilized to collect the most pressing questions from the audience. Please join the CTD2 and CSBC for this exciting series.
Monday, November 30, 2020, 9:30 am to Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 4:30 pm (registration required)
This virtual workshop, co-hosted by the NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will bring together scientists, therapeutic developers, and patient representatives to focus on immunogenicity issues related to the systemic administration of AAV gene therapy products and identify solutions for those issues.
Goals for this meeting include:
- Exchange lessons learned from AAV gene therapy clinical trials to date, including clinical manifestations of immunogenicity, methods for evaluating the risk of immune responses, effective immunosuppressive protocols and other clinical topics.
- Explore emerging methods and technologies for modulating immune responses to AAV gene therapies with respect to both reducing the immunogenicity of AAV vector molecules and tolerizing strategies.
- Review basic, preclinical and clinical knowledge gaps, including the adequacy of current in-silico algorithms, preclinical models, assays and knowledge-sharing mechanisms to address those gaps.
- Identify and explore potential solutions.
The deadline for abstract submission is October 1, 2020.
Monday, November 30, 2020, 1:00 pm to Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 5:30 pm
Established in 1970, the NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) today is the world’s largest funder of alcohol research — supporting innovative basic, translational, and clinical research to advance the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and alcohol-related problems. In honor of NIAAA's 50th anniversary this year, the Institute will host a two-day virtual symposium featuring lectures on alcohol use over time and during the time of COVID; what is on the horizon for medications for alcohol treatment disorder; and alcohol’s effects on the adolescent brain, liver disease, fetal development, and the stress system.
Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 11:00 am to Thursday, December 3, 2020, 2:30 pm (registration required)
The 2010 census estimated that 3.6 million Americans use a wheeled mobility device, such as a manual wheelchair, motorized wheelchair, or scooter. Individuals who use wheeled mobility devices often experience poorer health outcomes compared to the general population and may encounter barriers to accessing preventive health care and getting enough physical activity.
Physical activity is likely to have wide-ranging impacts on the overall health of people who use wheeled mobility devices and may improve their preventive health care, workforce participation, independence, and quality of life. While the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans highlight the need for increased physical activity in the population living with a disability, and recommend a mix of strength training and aerobic exercise to promote wellness and prevent disease, gaps exist in the literature on what types and amounts of exercise are safe and effective for wheelchair users.
The NIH is hosting this three-day virtual workshop to assess the available scientific evidence through a systematic evidence review, invite speakers to present their research, and engage with a community of wheeled mobility device users to better understand the potential benefits of physical activity interventions for people at risk of using, or currently using, wheeled mobility devices as a result of a disabling injury or illness. Attendees will have opportunities to submit questions and comments during discussion periods. After weighing the evidence, an independent panel will prepare a report that summarizes the workshop and identifies future research priorities.
Registration is required for this event. The workshop is free and open to the public, and is designed for researchers, health care professionals, and non-scientists. Individuals who use wheeled mobility devices and caregivers are particularly encouraged to attend.
Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 11:00 am to 12:30 pm
The NIH theme for World AIDS Day 2020 is Science and Community: Working Together to Prepare for the Unexpected. The event will promote community engagement and emphasize the importance of building the capacity of current and future generations of HIV researchers and advocates. It will reflect on lessons learned from HIV that have prepared us to address unexpected events. The virtual event is free and open to the public.
Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 1:00 pm to Wednesday, December 2, 2020, 4:00 pm (register by November 30)
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the NIH's Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). Join OBSSR virtually on December 1-2, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm each day, as we celebrate 25 years as an Office at the NIH. This annual festival brings together behavioral and social scientists across the NIH extramural and intramural communities to network, collaborate, and share scientific ideas; highlight recent NIH-funded behavioral and social sciences research; and explore ways to advance behavioral and social sciences research across biomedical and health-related fields. Presenters were selected from nominations made by the various NIH Institutes for high-impact researchers in behavioral and social science research. NIH Director Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., will deliver welcome and opening remarks.
Register to attend and view the festival agenda and speaker biographies.
Wednesday, December 9, 2020, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm (registration required)
The Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture Series was established to honor the founding director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, now known as the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). This year's lecture will be given by Dr. Shannon Zenk, Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). She will explore the science behind social determinants of health and demonstrate how vital effective integrative or multilevel approaches are when addressing health and health inequities. Social determinants of health are conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, and otherwise spend their time. They affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Dr. Zenk will share how to better understand what affects people’s health and drives health disparities, and ultimately how to develop effective interventions to improve the public’s health and eliminate inequities.
Registration is required to view the videocast of this lecture.
Tuesday, December 15, 2020 to Friday, December 18, 2020 (register by December 4)
This virtual workshop will highlight the state of the science in cannabis, its chemical constituents (e.g., cannabinoids) and cancer research, including cancer epidemiology, use in cancer patients, cancer biology and prevention, pre-clinical and clinical cancer symptom and treatment side-effect management, as well as the use of cannabis and cannabinoids as cancer therapeutics. The workshop will also address current barriers to research and strategies to navigate these hurdles to ensure feasibility of rigorous studies designed to address gaps in knowledge as well as potential research opportunities in the area of cannabis cancer-related research.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 to Thursday, January 28, 2021 (registration required)
This meeting is being rescheduled to a later date in 2021.
The Hispanic/Latino population, one of the fastest growing minority populations in the U.S., is estimated to reach 119 million by 2060. This diverse population (by country of origin, ancestry and race) and the anticipated demographic shift (e.g., immigrant vs. U.S.-born) may represent significant implications for cancer burden in the U.S. Some Hispanic populations have higher incidence and mortality rates for cancers of the liver, stomach, cervix, and gallbladder compared to other U.S. race/ethnic groups. The higher incidence and mortality rates of these cancers parallel observations for cancer burden in several Latin American countries. We do not fully understand the etiology that contributes to these differential cancer rates.
This NCI-sponsored workshop will consider the challenges, identify opportunities, and develop ideas for increasing Hispanic representation in cancer epidemiological studies. Three overarching objectives will govern the meeting: to identify scientific gaps and opportunities for cancer epidemiologic research in Hispanic populations, to encourage the use of existing resources and identify gaps in resources to enable cancer epidemiological research in Hispanic populations, and to facilitate and coordinate cross-discipline collaboration to inform research in Hispanic populations.
