FAES Announces Spring Courses

The FAES Graduate School at NIH announces the schedule of courses for the spring semester. The evening classes sponsored by the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences will be given on the NIH campus.

Courses are offered in biochemistry, biology, biotechnology (daytime courses), chemistry, immunology, languages, medicine, microbiology, pharmacology, statistics, technology transfer, alternative medicine and courses of general interest.

It is often possible to transfer credits earned to other institutions for degree work; many courses are approved for category 1 credit toward the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award.

Classes will begin Jan. 28; mail registration ends Dec. 28 and walk-in registration will be held from Jan. 9-15, 2008. Tuition is $115 per credit hour and courses may be taken for credit or audit. Courses that qualify for institute support as training should be cleared with supervisors and administrative officers as soon as possible. Both the vendor’s copy of the training form and the FAES registration form must be submitted at the time of registration. Note that FAES cannot access training forms entered in the NIHTS system; a signed hard copy (vendors’ copy of SF 182 form) is needed in order to process registrations for classes. Asking your institute to pay your tuition is a preliminary step to registration but does not constitute registration with the FAES Graduate School.

Schedules are available in the graduate school office in Bldg. 60, Suite 230; the Foundation Bookstore in Bldg. 10, Rm. B1L101; and the business office in Bldg. 10, Rm. B1C18. To have a catalog sent, call (301) 496-7976 or visit www.faes.org.

FAES Bookstore Offers Holiday Shopping

Come to the Foundation Bookstore in Bldg. 10 to take advantage of its convenient location for holiday shopping. The store carries a large selection of books and can also order any book currently in print. In addition, two raffles will be held: One prize is Molecular Biology, 6/E by Lodish and the other is any book (under $30 value) in stock. Raffle ends Dec. 19. Stop by the store in Bldg. 10, Rm. B1L101 to enter for your chance to win.

NIH-Duke Training Program in Clinical Research

Applications are being accepted for the 2008-2009 NIH-Duke Training Program in Clinical Research. Implemented in 1998, the program is designed primarily for physicians and dentists who desire formal training in the quantitative and methodological principles of clinical research. Courses are offered at the Clinical Center via videoconference. Academic credit earned by participating in the program may be applied toward satisfying the degree requirement for a master of health sciences in clinical research from Duke University School of Medicine. The degree requires 24 credits of graded course work, plus a research project for which 12 units of credit are given. The program is designed for part-time study, allowing students to integrate the program’s academic training with their clinical training.

Applications are available in the Office of Clinical Research Training and Medical Education, Bldg. 10, Rm. B1L403. Additional information about coursework and tuition costs is available via the program web site at http://tpcr.mc.duke.edu.

Enrollment is limited. Interested individuals should inquire with their NIH institute/center about funding for participation. Email queries may be addressed to tpcr@mc.duke.edu. Deadline for applying is Mar. 1, Successful applicants will be notified by July 1.

NLM’s Royall To Report on Living in Uganda

Julia Royall, chief of international programs at NLM, is spending a year in Uganda for NLM/NIH and also as a Fulbright scholar. In a midpoint report, she will give a lecture, “NLM Into Africa: Uganda Up Close and Personal,” on Tuesday, Dec. 18 from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in Lister Hill Auditorium, Bldg. 38A. She will talk about her on-the-ground quest to find out if an information intervention can make a difference in health: collaborating with librarians to help master’s students learn to search NLM databases in preparation for writing theses; working with medical students to get the MedlinePlus African tutorial on malaria out to health centers, district health offices and NGOs working in displaced persons camps; connecting with a village project in the eastern part of Uganda and a new Ugandan-founded university in the west. Royall will also give a glimpse of everyday life—food, friends, funny episodes of daily life and what it is like to be a muzungu (white foreigner). The NIH community is invited. Sign language interpretation will be provided.

eOPF System Upgrades

The eOPF (Electronic Official Personnel Folder) system is upgrading to version 3.2, which will make the system easier to use. What does this mean for you? New features include: New Look and Feel. The eOPF system will have a new look and feel, creating easier navigation through the system. User Functions. These will be displayed in a drop-down menu and can be accessed by clicking on an icon—an “A” (for action) with a circle around it. The icon is located on the left-hand side of each document in the folder. Document Placeholder. This highlights the document currently being viewed, and continues to highlight it in the document list even after it has been closed. Users will now be able to identify the document last viewed in the document list. Permanent and Temporary Folder Sides. In the new version, the eOPF folder sides are labeled “Permanent” (right side of the folder) and “Temporary” (left side of the folder), in contrast to just “right” and “left” in the old version. Permanent documents remain in the employee’s eOPF throughout his/her federal career, while temporary documents remain until the employee transfers to another agency or separates from government. New URL. Be sure to update all of your bookmarks with the new URL https://eopf.nbc.gov/hhs. For more information on eOPF and the upgrade, visit http://hr.od.nih.gov/HRSystems/eOPF/default.htm.

Lander Gives Trent Lecture

Dr. Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, traced how genome exploration has evolved over the past 15 years. Hundreds of people filled Masur Auditorium on Oct. 16 for the NIH Intramural Sequencing Center’s 10th anniversary symposium. Giving the fifth annual Jeffrey M. Trent Lecture in Cancer Research at the celebration was Dr. Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. His talk traced how genome exploration has evolved over the past 15 years, beginning with the turbulent early days of the Human Genome Project and culminating in current applications of HapMap data to hunt for genetic variations responsible for common human genetic diseases. Lander looked ahead to myriad exciting possibilities for genome research. “It’s a remarkable period we’re living through,” he said. “I see no sign of it topping off.” To young researchers in the audience, Lander advised pursuing scientific questions that would carry them beyond experiments at their own benches. He urged them to forge multidisciplinary collaborations and to familiarize themselves with tools and technologies outside their usual realm, particularly those that can help them sift through and make sense of the ever-growing genomic data sets. He also offered the genomics community some ambitious goals for the next 10 years, noting, “We’ve barely scratched the surface of genes and of biology.” Among items on his “to do” list are: interpreting human genetic variation and its relationship to disease; identifying all functional elements in the human genome; discovering how to modulate all genes; defining all molecular mechanisms underlying cancer; and deciphering the sequences of all major infectious agents.—Raymond MacDougall