NIEHS Spotlight

NIEHS and NTP Formally Welcome Birnbaum as Director

NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) formally welcomed their new leader, Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., on March 13 with a morning installation ceremony and an “Afternoon of Science” of distinguished lecturers. ...read more

Afternoon of Science Showcases Range of NIEHS Research

When NIEHS and National Toxicology Program (NTP) Director Linda Birnbaum chose distinguished lecturers to commemorate her official swearing in on March 13 with an Afternoon of Science, she no doubt chose the high-profile scientists on the basis of their contributions to their fields. ...read more

Autism Panel Releases Strategic Plan

On March 5, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) released its much-anticipated blueprint for research on autism. ...read more

NIEHS Women at Center Stage in Bethesda

NIEHS leaders Associate Director Sharon Hrynkow, Ph.D., and Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., were featured speakers at the NIH 2009 Women’s History Month Observance held in Wilson Hall on the NIH Campus in Bethesda March 12. The event was sponsored by the NIH Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management ...read more

Superfund Student Honored at Annual Toxicology Meeting

The NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP) was well represented at this year’s Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting March 15–19 in Baltimore, where Dartmouth College Ph.D. candidate and SBRP trainee Courtney Kozul was awarded an impressive four awards in recognition of her research. ...read more

Dudek to Receive A. E. Bennett Research Award

NIEHS Principal Investigator Serena Dudek, Ph.D., will be honored on May 16 by the president of the Society of Biological Psychiatry at the 64th Annual Scientific Convention and Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. ....read more

Birnbaum Taps Pritchard as Acting Scientific Director

NIEHS Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., announced the selection of retired NIEHS Principal Investigator John Pritchard, Ph.D., to serve as acting scientific director during a period of comprehensive national searches to fill key leadership positions at the Institute. ...read more

Zeldin Recognized at AAAAI Meeting

Acting Clinical Director Darryl C. Zeldin, M.D., was recognized for his professional accomplishments at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), held March 13 – 17 in Washington, D.C. ...read more

NIEHS-Funded Food Allergen Study Highlighted at AAAAI Meeting

Findings of an NIEHS-funded food allergen study, presented by lead author Andrew Liu, M.D., were highlighted in a national press release issued by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), following the group’s 2009 Annual Meeting held March 13–17 in Washington — one of only seven such news alerts issued from the meeting. ...read more

Dearry Represents NIEHS at Ocean Science Public Policy Forum

NIEHS Director of the Office of Environmental Public Health Allen Dearry, Ph.D., was at the speakers’ table March 5 when the Consortium for Ocean Leadership held its Annual Policy Forum and reception at the new Capitol Visitor Center on Capitol Hill in Washington. ...read more

Institute Enjoys a Banner Year at SOT

It was a record-setting year at the Society of Toxicology (SOT) 48th Annual Meeting in Baltimore March 15–19 — both for SOT itself and for NIEHS and top-level sponsor the National Toxicology Program (NTP). ...read more

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Inside the Institute

Assembly Forms to Represent Technical Staff

As far as its organizers know, the first meeting of the Assembly of Laboratory Staff (AoLS) at NIEHS on March 4 may also be the only meeting of an organization of its kind ever anywhere in the NIH network of institutes and centers (ICs). ...read more

NIEHS Welcomes Japanese Students

On March 9, 16 high school students from the Mizusawa Super Science High School in Iwate, Japan visited NIEHS for an afternoon seminar as part of an ongoing exchange program with the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM). ...read more

Roman Outlines New ADA Amendment

A new amendment to the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and 1973 Rehabilitation Act went into effect on January 1, 2009 extending coverage of employees with disabling conditions. ...read more

A Belated Retirement Get-Together for Janet Guthrie

A group of about 30 NIEHS employees and retirees gathered February 26 to give longtime NIEHS employee Janet Guthrie a belated retirement party. ...read more

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Science Notebook

Transcriptional Control During Embryogenesis

Studies with the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and sea squirt (Ciona intestinalis) are helping to unravel the connection between transcriptional networks and cellular behavior. ...read more

TAC Seminar Explores Y-Family Polymerases

On March 9, the NIEHS Trainee Action Committee (TAC) of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics welcomed Roger Woodgate, Ph.D., chief of the Laboratory of Genomic Integrity at the National Institute of Child Health and Development. ...read more

First Sister Study Results Reinforce the Importance of Healthy Living

Women who maintain a healthy weight and who have lower perceived stress may be less likely to have chromosome changes associated with aging than obese and stressed women, according to a pilot study that was part of the NIEHSsponsored Sister Study. ...read more

Study Links Maternal Exhaust Exposure to Childhood Asthma

A recent proof-of-principle study, funded in part by NIEHS, reports preliminary evidence of an association between transplacental exposure to traffic-related polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and childhood asthma among a cohort in New York City — where more than 25 percent of children are affected by the disease. ...read more

Metabolic Syndrome and Breast Cancer Models

In a new study, funded in part by NIEHS, a collaborative research team reports data supporting the hypothesis that distinct mouse models of breast cancer respond differently to high fat diet and exposure to the endocrine disruptor dioxin and manifest different phenotypes of metabolic syndrome. ...read more

Dietary Broccoli Can Help Protect Against Airway Oxidative Stress

Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report that orally administered sulforaphane (SFN) — a compound that is found in cruciferous vegetables and is especially high in broccoli sprouts — can enhance Phase II antioxidant enzyme levels in human airways. ...read more

Nobel Winner Oliver Smithies to Give Rodbell Lecture April 14

Nobel Laureate Oliver Smithies, D.Phil., will deliver the eleventh annual Rodbell Lecture on April 14 at 2:00 p.m. in Rodbell Auditorium. Smithies’ seminar, “Turning Pages: From Gels to Genes,” is part of the NIEHS 2008–2009 Distinguished Lecture Series. ...read more

This Month in EHP

The April 2009 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives is now available on-line, with a feature story on the controversy surrounding health risks related to oil sands development. ...read more

Extramural Research

Extramural Update

NIH announced in a March 10 press release that $1.5 billion is currently available to fund grants for scientific research, construction and improvement of research facilities, and the purchase of scientific equipment. This is the first installment of the $10.4 billion to be provided to NIH as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which was signed into law on February 19. ...read more

Extramural Papers of the Month

• Nanotechnology Delivers -- First Report of Targeted Killing of Tumor Cells
• New Genetic Markers Identified for Increased Heart Attack Risk
• Autism Increase Not Due to Better Diagnosis
• Extreme Temperature and Mortality Risk

Intramural Research

Intramural Papers of the Month

• Infants Fed Soy Formula Have High Exposure to Isoflavones
• PXR and CAR are Responsible for Bone Loss in Patients Taking Antiepileptic and Antimicrobial Medications
• The Importance of Pol32 in the Repair of Clustered Lesions
• Protein Kinase Cζ Controls Organic Anion Transporters

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Calendar of Upcoming Events

• April 2 (offsite event) in Love Auditorium at the Levine Science Research Center on the Duke University campus, 4:30 – 5:30 — Duke M.D./Ph.D. Annual Symposium Keynote Address by Oliver Smithies, D.Phil., discussing “On Being a Scientist for Sixty Years,” following a Student Poster Session and Platform Presentations from 1:00 to 4:15
• April 3 (offsite event) in the Searle Center, Room E, on the Duke University campus, 12:00 – 1:00 — Duke Superfund Basic Research Center Seminar, “Understanding the two faces of mitochondrial energetics with C. elegans models of disease and longevity,” by Bernard Lemire, Ph.D.
• April 6 in Rodbell Auditorium, 2:00 – 4:00 — Thank You Ceremony for Samuel Wilson, M.D.
• April 7 in Rodbell Auditorium, 10:00 – 11:00 — “Parkinson’s Disease: Etiology, Clinical and Disability Management,” a seminar with Honglei Chen, M.D., Ph.D., and Xuemei Huang, M.D., Ph.D.
• April 7–8 (offsite event) in the Sonya Haynes Stone Center, UNC-Chapel Hill — 10th Annual Women’s Health Research Conference, with registration (http://www.cwhr.unc.edu/WHRD.pl) required
• April 7–10 (offsite event) in the Natcher Conference Center on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md. — NanoWeek (http://www.capconcorp.com/nanoweek2009/visiting.asp) , featuring review presentations from program directors and extramural investigators on Apr. 7, research presentations and laboratory demonstrations from intramural investigators, and a 2- days joint NIH/IEEE workshop on nanomedicine.
• April 10 (offsite event) in the Searle Center, Room E, on the Duke University campus, 12:00 – 1:00 —Duke Superfund Basic Research Center Seminar with Jin-ju Li, Ph.D., speaking on “Diesel-exhaust particles evoke secretion of matrix-metalloproteinase 1 from human airway epithelia in a MEK mitogen-activated kinase dependent manner”
• April 13 (offsite event) at EPA Conference Center, 11:30 - 4:30 — Genetics and Environmental Mutagenesis Society (GEMS) Spring Meeting for 2009, “Genome Architecture: The Role for Copy Number and Structural Variation,” with registration (http://gems-nc.org/Spring_meeting09.html) required
• April 14 in Rodbell Auditorium, 2:00 - 3:00 — NIEHS Distinguished Lecture Series Annual Rodbell Lecture with Oliver Smithies, D.Phil., speaking on “Turning Pages: From Gels to Genes”
• April 16–17 (offsite event) at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, — NIH Regional Seminar, covering topics related to NIH Extramural program funding and grants administration
• April 17 (offsite event) in the Searle Center, Room E, on the Duke University campus, 12:00 – 1:00 — Duke Superfund Basic Research Center Seminar, “Health Disparities: Conceptual and Measurement Issues,” by Jay Kaufman, Ph.D.
• April 24 in Rodbell Auditorium, 9:00 – 10:00 — Frontiers in Environmental Sciences Lecture Series, TBA
• April 30–May 1 (offsite event) at the Millennium Hotel in Cincinnati — Spring 2009 NIEHS WETP Awardee Meeting and Workshop: Local, State and Federal Partnerships for Chemical Preparedness and Response

View More Events: NIEHS Public Calendar

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The Environmental Factor is produced monthly by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/), Office of Communications and Public Liaison. The content is not copyrighted, and it can be reprinted without permission. If you use parts of Environmental Factor in your publication, we ask that you provide us with a copy for our records. We welcome your comments and suggestions. (bruskec@niehs.nih.gov)