September 3, 2002
Vol. LIV, No. 18

Wilson To Give NIH Director's Lecture, Sept. 11

EHRP System
To Debut Sept. 9

Von Eschenbach
Lectures Summer Interns

'Medicine for the Public' Lectures Begin 26th Year

By Anna Maria Gillis

Scientists (from l) Bernhard Witkop, John Daly and Takashi Tokuyama study the structure of batrachotoxins, potent chemicals that affect nerve and muscle cells. (Photo circa 1969)

When he first contacted NIDDK's Dr. John W. Daly in 1990, John Dumbacher says he was afraid that the senior scientist would think "I was just a nutty kid." But Dumbacher, then a graduate student in ornithology at the University of Chicago, needed the help of one of the world's leading natural product chemists to test what seemed a far-fetched idea.
M O R E . . .

From Sir, With Love (of Longer Life)
Peto Says Halving Premature Death Rate Is an Achievable Goal

By Rich McManus

There aren't many in medicine who can authoritatively offer prescriptions for the entire world, but Sir Richard Peto, who has built an internationally acclaimed career examining the big picture, from the vantage of medical statistics, may be one of them. Returning to NIH for the second time in a month (the first was to accept the 2002 Charles Mott Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation), Peto explained, before a Wednesday Afternoon Lecture audience in Masur Auditorium on June 26, that halving the rate of premature death worldwide is within the capacity of current medical expertise.
M O R E . . .