NIEHS Spotlight

Superfund Basic Research Program Anniversary

For pioneers in the NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP)(http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/sbrp/index.cfm), the twenty year anniversary celebration December 1-3 was a time to acknowledge the program’s many laurels — and look forward to new challenges....read more

Leadership and Gender Symposium for Latinas

The picturesque Lawton Chiles International “Stone House” at the Fogarty International Center (FIC) on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., was the site of a symposium focused on the needs of women in science....read more

NTP Board of Scientific Counselors Meets

With an observation that “this is a very active time in this field of ours,” NIEHS/NTP Acting Director Sam Wilson, M.D., opened the fall 2007 meeting of the NTP Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC) on December 6 in Rodbell Auditorium....read more

Former Postdoc Awarded Cancer Scholarship

Less than eight months after completing her postdoctoral fellowship at NIEHS, molecular geneticist Francesca Storici, Ph.D., became one of 29 researchers selected as Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholars for 2008....read more

Environmental Justice Grantees Meet in Boston

It may have been cold and overcast in Boston during the December 10 – 12 gathering of grantees in the NIEHS Environmental Justice Research Program, but the atmosphere indoors was anything but gloomy....read more

Bucher Announces NTP Realignment

During his report to the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Board of Scientific Counselors on December 6 (see related Spotlight story), NTP Associate Director John Bucher, Ph.D., presented an update on the realignment of the program within the NIEHS Division of Intramural Research....read more

NIEHS Kicks Off Transportation and Health Workshop

In spite of the bad luck associated with its ordinal designation, Workshop 13 in the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) ongoing Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research and Medicine may turn out to be its luckiest so far....read more

Jayes Accepts Duke Research Position

It won’t be much consolation for her colleagues in the NIEHS Trainees Assembly (NTA) who will miss her energy and dedication to her fellow trainees. But the loss of Friederike Jayes, D.V.M., Ph.D., for NIEHS will be a gain for students at Duke University Medical Center....read more

Noteworthy Developments

In the closing months of 2007, NIEHS Health Science Administrator Cindy Lawler, Ph.D., was named to a new Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, and NIEHS postdoctoral alumna and pharmacologist Julianne Hall, Ph.D., returned to RTP to assume a position as a research investigator at the Hamner Institutes, formerly CIIT....read more

Inside the Institute

NIEHS Holds Awards Day

On December 13, NIEHS honored employees at the Director’s Annual Honor Awards Ceremony in Rodbell Auditorium. The event was chaired by Director of Education and Biomedical Research Development Marian Johnson-Thompson, Ph.D....read more

Diversity Council Hosts Native American Heritage Concert

True to tradition, the NIEHS Diversity Council gave NIEHS employees and contractors something a little different when it presented a concert in the NIEHS cafeteria by R. Carlos Nakai and Keola Beamer in celebration of Native American Heritage Month November 30....read more

Institute Celebrates the Season

Members of the NIEHS community, who put their best efforts into advancing science during the rest of the year, are also accomplished at ushering in the solstice season. During the weeks leading up to the two-day holiday, the festive season gives contractors and employees an opportunity to show off their goofy ties, silly sweaters, and ridiculous hats and to decorate office doors with wrapping paper, ribbon and bows....read more

Clinical Research Unit Takes Shape

The factory-built modular units that will make up the new Clinical Research Center arrived right on schedule in early December, and workers started placing the units and connecting them together to create a structure resembling the artist's rendition posted on the NIEHS web site....read more

Science Notebook

Translesion DNA Synthesis Uses Specialized Polymerases

On December 11, Errol C. Friedberg, M.D., delivered a seminar about DNA damage and repair to a near capacity audience in Rodbell Auditorium. The seminar, titled “Specialized DNA Polymerases in Higher Organisms: Insights from the Polκ [polymerase kappa] Knock-Out Mouse,” was part of the NIEHS Distinguished Lecture Series....read more

Study Links Gene Expression Changes in Babies and Arsenic Exposure

In a study made possible by NIEHS extramural funding, a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Thailand’s Chulabhorn Research Institute (CRI) have identified for the first time a highly predictive biomarker gene set for prenatal arsenic exposure....read more

Superfund Looks to Its Future

After two days of sharing the excitement of their science and recounting the accomplishments of the Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP), on December 5 attendees at the twenty-year anniversary celebration (see Spotlight story) were confronted with the mass of unfinished business still to address and the challenges the program is sure to face in the future....read more

Higher BMI Worsens Ozone Effect

A new study published in Inhalation Toxicology and co-authored by two NIEHS researchers, Stephanie London, M.D., and Grace Kissling, Ph.D., provides the first evidence that people with higher body mass index (BMI) may have a greater response to ozone exposure than leaner people....read more

Low Dose Arsenic Is an Endrocrine Disruptor

The U.S. drinking water supply contains several naturally occurring contaminants, such as potassium, arsenic, manganese and radium, as well as a number of organic contaminants including chlorination by-products and groundwater contaminants....read more

Upcoming Distinguished Lecture Features Richard A. Flavell

The 2007-2008 NIEHS Distinguished Lecture Series continues at 11:00 a.m. on January 8 with a talk by Richard A. Flavell, Ph.D., on “Innate and Adaptive Immunity.” Flavell’s talk will take place in Rodbell Auditorium and be hosted by Donald Cook, Ph.D., head of the Immunogenetics Group in the NIEHS Laboratory of Respiratory Biology....read more

Extramural Research

Extramural Update

The Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP) announced that Roxanne Karimi, Ph.D., of Dartmouth College is the recipient of the tenth annual Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award. The award was presented on December 4th, 2007 at the SBRP 20th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Durham, N.C., by NIEHSDivision of Extramural Research and Training Acting Director Dennis Lang, Ph.D.....read more

Extramural Papers of the Month

• Beyond the Human Genome Sequence: Scientists Map “Silenced Genes”
• Bisphenol A Effects on ERβ Expression: Implications in Prostate Cancer
• Regular Use of NSAIDS May Reduce the Risk of Parkinson’s Disease

Intramural Research

Intramural Papers of the Month

• Genes in Blood Can Predict Harmful Levels of Acetaminophen
• DNA Polymerase Gamma Mutant Causes Enhanced Oxidative Stress
• Regulatory Roles of Two Retinoid-related Orphan Receptor Isoforms
• Glucocorticoid Receptor Isoforms Regulate Bone Cell Apoptosis

Calendar of Upcoming Events

• January 8 in Rodbell Auditorium, 11:00 – 12:00 — Distinguished Lecture Series with Richard Flavell, Ph.D., speaking on “Innate and Adaptive Immunity”
• January 8 in Rall F-193, 2:00 – 3:00 — Featuring William G. Thilly, Sc.D., presenting a seminar on "Fetal-juvenile stem cells and the origins of oncomutations in humans"
• January 9 in Rodbell Auditorium, 2:30 – 4:30 — NTP Biomolecular Screening Branch Seminar on “Identifying Toxicity Pathways: linking genes, pathways and disease,” with Chris Portier, Ph.D.
• January 14 in Executive Conference Room, 2:00 – 4:00 — Durham Careers in Life Sciences Meeting, chaired by Marian Johnson-Thompson, Ph.D.
• January 16 - 18 (Off-site event) at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. — Climate Change: Science and Solutions
• January 16 (Off-site event) in the EPA Auditorium, 10:00 – 11:30 — Martin Luther King, Jr. Observation, featuring Bennett College President Julianne Malveaux, Ph.D.
• January 18 in Rodbell Auditorium, 9:00 – 10:00 — Frontiers in Environmental Sciences Lecture Series, featuring Fred Wright, Ph.D., topic TBA
• January 18 in Rodbell Auditorium, 1:00 – 1:30 — Tae Kwon Do Demonstration by Team White Tiger
• January 24 in Rall F-193, 1:00 – 2:00 — Laboratory of Structural Biology Seminar Series, with Eric C. Greene, Ph.D., speaking on "Visualizing DNA repair proteins in action"
• January 25 in Rodbell Auditorium, 9:00 – 10:00 — Frontiers in Environmental Sciences Lecture Series, featuring Rita Colwell, Ph.D., topic TBA
• January 31 in Rodbell Auditorium C, 11:00 – 12:00 — Seminar on “Responsibility for health: personal, social, and environmental,” with David B. Resnik, Ph.D., J.D.
• February 1 in Rodbell Auditorium, 9:00 – 10:00 — Frontiers in Environmental Sciences Lecture Series, featuring Anna Maria Siega-Riz, Ph.D., topic TBA

View More Events: NIEHS Public Calendar

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