Vodcast 2007 Show Notes

Episode #0001—April 9, 2007
Time: 00:30:09 | Size: 215 MB

Welcome to i on NIH!

In this month’s episode: wearing a red dress is more than good taste, kids discover research and fun with science, and i-to-eye with the Director of NIH.

NARRATOR: FROM THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH IN BETHESDA, MARYLAND – AMERICA’S PREMIERE MEDICAL RESEARCH AGENCY – THIS IS “I ON NIH”! COVERING HEALTH-RESEARCH TOPICS IMPORTANT TO YOU AND THE NATION, THIS PUBLIC SERVICE VODCAST IS YOUR INFORMATION SOURCE FROM INSIDE ALL 27 INSTITUTES AND CENTERS AT NIH. HALF AN HOUR, ONCE A MONTH, WE’LL SHOW YOU THE EXCITEMENT OF ADVANCES AND THE IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT COMES FROM MEDICAL RESEARCH. AND NOW, HERE’S YOUR HOST, JOE BALINTFY.

HOST: WELCOME TO THE VERY FIRST EDITION OF “i ON NIH.” THANKS FOR JOINING US. FOR THIS VERY FIRST VODCAST WE’RE TRYING TO MAKE EVERYTHING WE DO HERE AT NIH LOOK ESPECIALLY GLAMOROUS AND EXCITING. THAT’S WHY WE’RE HIGHLIGHTING A CELEBRITY RED DRESS FASHION SHOW FROM NEW YORK CITY, A DISCOVERY CHANNEL PROGRAM FILMED RIGHT HERE ON OUR CAMPUS, AND AN EYE-TO-EYE INTERVIEW WITH OUR VERY OWN DIRECTOR, DR. ZERHOUNI.

THAT’S THE FORMAT WE’RE PLANNING FOR FUTURE EPISODES OF “i ON NIH”: THIS FIRST COUPLE MINUTES WE’LL HAVE NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NIH RECORD AND NEWS IN HEALTH – THOSE ARE A COUPLE OF OUR PUBLICATIONS. THEN WE’LL HAVE TWO FEATURE REPORTS – STORIES LIKE YOU MIGHT SEE ON TV. AND WE’LL WRAP UP EACH EPISODE WITH THE EYE-TO-EYE SEGMENT, AN IN-DEPTH, ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW.

BUT BEFORE WE GET GOING TO FAR FORWARD, WE WANTED TO TAKE A STEP BACK: A QUICK HISTORY– ABOUT 120 YEARS IN A 120 SECONDS…

HOST: THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH TRACES ITS ROOTS TO 1887. BACK THEN IT WAS PART OF THE MARINE HOSPITAL SERVICE. CALLED THE "LABORATORY OF HYGIENE" IT WAS ONE ROOM IN THE ATTIC OF THE MARINE HOSPITAL. IN 1891, THE LAB MOVED TO CAPITOL HILL IN WASHINGTON, D.C.. THERE RESEARCHERS BEGAN OVERSEEING THE PRODUCTION AND LICENSES FOR MAKING VACCINES, ANTITOXINS, AND ANTIBACTERIAL AGENTS.

EARLY RESEARCH IN THESE AREAS LED INVESTIGATORS INTO NEW FIELDS, LIKE IMMUNOLOGY. IN 1901, THE LABORATORY WAS RECOGNIZED IN LAW WHEN CONGRESS AUTHORIZED 35 THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW BUILDING. SO IN 1904, THE LAB MOVED AGAIN. BY 1912, WITH INCREASES IN SPACE, STAFF, AND FUNDING, WORK BEGAN ON NON-INFECTIOUS DISEASES AS WELL. CONGRESS PASSED AN ACT IN 1930 CHANGING THE LAB’S NAME TO THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH AND ESTABLISHING FELLOWSHIPS FOR RESEARCHERS. FIVE YEARS LATER PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT SIGNED A LAW ALLOCATING 2 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF DISEASE AND THE PROBLEMS OF SANITATION. SEVEN YEARS LATER, THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE WAS CREATED FORESHADOWING THE CATEGORICAL-DISEASE STRUCTURE NIH USES TODAY. THEN IN 1940 PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT DEDICATED THE NEW NIH CAMPUS IN BETHESDA, MARYLAND. THE SECOND WORLD WAR REDIRECTED THE FOCUS OF NIH TO RESEARCH ON HEALTH ISSUES FOR BOTH THE MILITARY AND DEFENSE WORKERS. THEN AFTER THE WAR, NIH PURCHASED OVER 200 ACRES OF LAND IN BETHESDA AND BEGAN PLANS FOR A RESEARCH HOSPITAL WITH 540 BEDS.

HOST: NOW THE CLINICAL CENTER, BUILDING 10, IS ONE OF 50 NIH ON OUR CAMPUS HERE AND THE NIH IS COMPRISED OF 27 DIFFERENT INSTITUTES AND CENTERS, WITH A BUDGET OF MORE THAN 29 BILLION DOLLARS. FOR MORE INFO ON NIH, VISIT OUR WEBSITE NIH-DOT-GOV. THANKS TO OUR NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE AND THE OFFICE OF NIH HISTORY FOR THE INFORMATION AND IMAGES IN THIS SUMMARY.

AND NOW THANKS TO WALLY AKINSO FOR OUR VERY FIRST FEATURED REPORT FOR “i ON NIH”! AND TO INTRODUCE THIS STORY, WE DON’T HAVE TO GO ANY FATHER THAN MY LAPEL PIN…THE RED DRESS, THE ICON OF THE HEARTH TRUTH CAMPAIGN…

HOST: THANKS AGAIN TO WALLY AKINSO FOR OUR VERY FIRST FEATURE REPORT. NOW FOR OUR SECOND FEATURE, WE TURN TO BILL SCHMALFELDT. BILL EXPLAINS A RECENT VISIT BY DISCOVERY CHANNEL: THE YOUTH SCIENCE CHALLENGE.

BILL SCHMALFELDT: In late October 40 of the nation’s top middle school science students competed in the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge on the campus of the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland to find Americas’ top young scientist of the year. The Young Scientist Challenge was developed in 1999 by Discovery Communications and Science Service as a way to help boost the nation’s achievement in science and math. The 40 finalists were chosen from 1,900 entrants and represented 38 schools from 20 states and the District of Columbia. The “disease detectives” were split into 8 teams of 5 and competed as teams and individuals. The finalists shared over $100,000 in scholarships and other prizes with the top winner receiving a $20,000 scholarship. The challenges - environment: breaking the mold; endoscopy/imaging/colonoscopy: from the inside out; avian flu: something in the air; obesity: eat, think, and be healthy - were conducted in building 10. In addition, a lab tech relay, a chemistry challenge and a media center were located in conference rooms in the Natcher building.

HOST: IN THAT LAST FEATURE YOU SAW A SHORT INTERVIEW WITH DR. ELIAS ZERHOUNI. NOW HERE’S MORE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF NIH IN OUR EYE-TO-EYE INTERVIEW…

“WHAT DID THE SCIENTISTS WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE DISCOVERY YOUNG SCIENTIST CHALLENGE FIND MOST SIGNIFICANT ABOUT THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH THE KIDS?"

That’s a good question. You know when you ask scientists what they found exciting about this, number one, it brought them to their youth. And many of them sort of relate to what these kids are going through, because we all did this. I remember, I had a math teacher and his trick was to give us problems that he knew had never been solved. So one time he gave us a problem and he didn’t tell us that this was a problem that hadn’t been solved for 20 years. So we start working on it for a month and in all kinds of directions and at the told us. And we said “that’s not fair.” But he said, “No, it may not be fair, but look at what you did. You thought about all the possibilities.” Well, our scientists feel the same way. They feel that these kids are bringing to them a freshness. And by just thinking about, hey how do I excite a child who’s not in my specialty, is not an expert, doesn’t understand my language, means that you as a scientist need to communicate and find ways of communicating in a way that really goes to the essence of science which is young people, young minds, creativity. It’s not machines, it’s not techniques, it’s really that excitement and I think that was the key to this program.

“WHAT MAKES A GOOD SCIENTIST?”

I think curiosity is very important. Excitement about the mysteries that you face. To me, being a scientist is like being Harry Potter, but dealing with not made-up issues, but real problems and it’s an adventure. If you see it that way you realize that the key to a great scientist is the one that remains a child in his mind, you know. To me I’m always wondering about the new next thing that happens, and what it means, and then you have all these ideas in your mind about how you could solve that problem if you had the time, you had the energy if you had the new ideas. That’s what I think is key to a scientist: if you remain young in your mind, you can go on and enjoy really something that is unique to mankind and that is we have the unique ability to understand the world around us. That’s what scientists do.

“DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE THE DECISION TO DEDICATE YOUR LIFE TO MEDICAL SCIENCE?”

Yes I do. I think it was the… I’ll tell you the story. I was in a very remote region of north Africa and people there were suffering with tuberculosis, and there was nothing that people could offer them. And I was really interested in making sure that we could reach them. And I saw a woman come with two kids and they went to the local public health office, which was really a third of the office here, and they had nothing. Nothing. And the poor technician, who was trying to help them, told them, “You need an x-ray, but I don’t have that. You need to go like 60 miles to go get it” and so on. But he said, “But let me do something for you.” And he opened the, there was an icebox, and he said “Why don’t you come over to the ice box.” Because they were hot, warm with fever. And he put them in front of the icebox for 20 minutes and said, “Do you feel better?” And woman said, “Oh yes, thank you very much.” And I knew then, this is what I need to do. This isn’t going to go well if the world leaves people like that, you know, with just a little bit of ice box cooling, which felt good, but wasn’t going to cure them. So that to me was the moment – I still remember it very, very clearly.

“HOW DOES THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS NEED TO PREPARE TO MEET THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE?”

That’s a great question and it’s hard to know. I think the danger is that if you over prepare somebody with something you already know, then the risk is that they keep doing what you taught them. Yet we know that progress is not going to come from that, its going to come from people who mix and match different ideas. So I think the training of the future scientist is going to have to be more diverse than what it is today. And they’re going to have to learn the language of computing, the language of biochemistry, the language of genetics and really be integrators of that. That’s what the young kids need to do; they can’t just be mono-track. They have to have a multi-track training and understand how to communicate better with all kinds of scientific fields, within all kinds of disciplines. Much more potent that what we had in the past.

“DURING YOUR FORMATIVE YEARS, WHO ENCOURAGED YOU WITH YOUR CAREER IN MEDICINE AND HOW DID THEY HELP?”

No one succeeds without being mentored you know, excited. So I would say my father was really important because he loved science and he always bred curiosity. My mother, because she felt that it was the future that you needed an education. And I came from a poor country, with seven kids in my family, and weren’t wealthy at all. So for them it was very important. The third I think was this math teacher I told you about. I still remember him. It was always exciting because he told us problems and we could see that these were problems that every kid around the world could face whether it be here or China or Japan so it was global. I liked that. And then, like I said, the volunteering work that I did really changed my mind about what I want to do. Then I had an uncle who’s a radiologist who also showed me the excitement of what he was doing so I decided to do that. And when I came to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, I barely spoke English, I didn’t know anyone, and people there were super nice. And I had a doctor named Dr. Seigleman who was a mentor, and he told me, said “I encourage you not to go the beaten path – don’t do what everybody else does.” He showed me the fact that in science, going with the herd is not the solution. You want to take a chance. And I did. And it all worked out. So all through life I’ve had people who’ve just been supportive, helpful and I want to do the same through the NIH for all those thousands of kids out there who may have greater potential than I ever had. That’s what it is.

“DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS AS THEY START THEIR CAREERS?”

I think my advice to young scientists is that this is the greatest adventure you can get into; it’s better than everything else because anything else has been done over and over. And frankly the best advice I can give is to enjoy the excitement and the rewards. Let’s be real. Of people and industry and new technology typically of scientist who make these contributions. So you can contribute to humanity, you can contribute to yourself. My best advice is really don’t shy away from taking risks, from doing things that no one else has done. This is where the greatest chances are. You can always go back to what everybody else is doing if you’re smart. So work hard, educate yourself, be smart and take risks.

HOST: THANKS VERY MUCH FOR TUNING IN TO OUR VERY FIRST EPISODE OF “i ON NIH”! AND BE SURE TO CHECK BACK NEXT MONTH. WE’LL FEATURE REPORTS ON “BRING YOUR CHILD TO WORK DAY” THE HBO DOCUMENTARY SERIES ON ADDICTION AND AN I-TO-EYE INTERVIEW WITH A D-N-A DETECTIVE. SEE YOU NEXT MONTH. FOR “i ON NIH” I’M JOE BALINTFY.

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V/O: “i ON NIH” IS A PUBLIC SERVICE VODCAST FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, PRODUCED BY THE NIH NEWS MEDIA BRANCH OF THE OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC LIAISON. THANKS FOR TUNING IN. WE’LL BE BACK NEXT MONTH WITH ANOTHER EPISODE OF “i ON NIH.”