NIEHS Employees Honored by NIH Director and Public Health Service
NIEHS employees were honored recently at the National Institutes of Health for outstanding research in areas such as the gene for inherited breast cancer, reproductive toxicants, and slippery DNA, and for innovative management of a federal facility.
(Front row, left to right) Lori Tarry, Andrew Futreal, Roger Wiseman, J. Carl Barrett, Astrid Haugen-Strano; (back row, left to right) Michelle Bennett, Charles Cochran, Heather Brownlee.
The NIH Director's Group Award was presented to the Comparative Carcinogenesis Group of the Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis for its role in the isolation and characterization of the breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA1. Identification of the BRCA1 gene has major implications for public health, including the potential for early tumor detection, improved prognosis, and new therapeutic strategies. Members of the group include J. Carl Barrett, Michelle Bennett, Heather Brownlee, Charles Cochran, Andrew Futreal, Astrid Haugen-Strano, Lori Terry, and Roger W. Wiseman.
Robert E. Chapin
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Thomas A. Kunkel
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Thomas M. Bedlick |
Robert Chapin, a toxicologist in the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Group of the Experimental Toxicology Program, received the NIH Director's Award in recognition of his work in the detection of human reproductive toxicants and in assessing human reproductive risks associated with chemical exposures. Chapin has devised new methods for screening large numbers of chemicals for reproductive toxicity in rodents and has worked to develop specific protocols in this area.
Mutations arise when DNA bases are copied out of sequence, generating base additions or deletions. The human genome contains many slippage-prone sequences that may be increased in certain tumors. Thomas Kunkel, a research geneticist in the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, has discovered that a frequent cause of this human mutator condition is a defect in the repair of the newly produced mutations.
Kunkel received the NIH Director's Award for his studies of the mechanisms of DNA-slippage and its role in carcinogenesis and HIV variation.
Thomas M. Bedick, chief of the NIEHS Facilities Engineering Branch, received the Public Health Service Meritorious Service Medal for his role in the renovation of 50 office spaces for use as scientific laboratories. The award commended Bedick for exemplary leadership and innovative management in building an effective professional team.
Environmental Justice Leaders Meet
At a recent meeting hosted by NIEHS Director Kenneth Olden, environmental justice leaders reviewed the Department of Health and Human Services' Environmental Justice Strategy (see Special Report on next page). At the meeting in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, leaders emphasized the need for a coordinated approach to ethnic and regional networks focused on health and justice in low-income and minority populations. Senior staff from the NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program identified opportunities for improved partnerships with the networks through the hazardous waste and minority worker training program, environmental justice partnership grants, and other core professional training and research activities. Olden stressed the importance of expanding collaborative efforts with the networks over the next year, as the NIEHS and DHHS implement the environmental justice strategy.
Justice team. (left to right) Sharon Beard, Allen Dearry, Mary Crowe, Charles Lee, Kenneth Olden, Richard Moore, Connie Tucker, Robert Bullard, Yin Ling Leung, and Jerry Poje.
Leaders who attended the meeting include: Richard Moore, director of the Southwest Network for Economic and Environmental Justice and chair of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee, Mary Crowe of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Charles Lee of the United Church of Christ's Commission on Racial Justice, Connie Tucker of the Southern Organizing Committee, Robert Bullard, director of Clark Atlanta University's Environmental Justice Resource Center, and Yin Ling Leung of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network.
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Last Update: March 31, 1997 |