Plenary Sessions

• Creating NIH Technology Incubators
• Responding to Public Health Emergencies
• Chronic Inflammation

Plenary Session I: Creating NIH Technology Incubators

The NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) has a world-class cohort of investigators who are moving the state-of-the-art to visualize molecules at the cellular level and to use clinical imagery to improve diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Examples include near-atomic-level imaging of protein-drug interactions, the imaging of sub-cellular movement in real-time in living organisms, and the use of imaging to improve diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This plenary session will focus on the ways the IRP has invested in and will develop the infrastructure to support paradigm-shifting technologies.

• Welcome and Introduction
  Michael Gottesman, M.D., Deputy Director for Intramural Research, NIH
• Improving the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer
  Peter Choyke, M.D., F.A.C.R. (NCI/CCR)
• Real-time high-resolution imaging of living organisms
  Hari Shroff, Ph.D. (NIBIB)
• The Cryo-EM revolution: applications to biology and medicine
  Sriram Subramaniam, Ph.D. (NCI/CCR)
• Panel Discussants: Adriaan Bax, Ph.D. (NIDDK), Jodi Black, Ph.D. (NHLBI), and Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Ph.D. (NICHD)

Plenary Session II: Responding to Public Health Emergencies

This plenary session will focus on the many ways that the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) has served a crucial role in various public health emergencies. From assessing radiation dangers after the Japanese tsunami and nuclear accident, to developing an Ebola vaccine and treating infected individuals, to tracing the origins of recent food-borne disease outbreaks through genomic analysis, the NIH IRP continues to be among the “first responders” to protect the nation’s and the world’s health.

• Welcome and Introduction
  Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. (NIH)
• The West African NIH clinical research response to Ebola
  Clifford Lane, M.D. (NIAID)
• The enormous global burden of mental illness
  Pamela Collins, M.D. (NIMH)
• A national genomics network for food safety
  David Lipman, M.D. (NLM/NCBI)
• Panel Discussants: Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D. (NIEHS) and Anthony Fauci, M.D. (NIAID)

Plenary Session III: Chronic Inflammation

Most of the NIH institutes and centers are involved in studies for which chronic inflammation is a common denominator. Allergies, asthma, heart and circulatory disease, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, some cancers, multiple sclerosis, and possibly Alzheimer’s. These are just a few debilitating diseases that can originate partly or entirely from the immune system’s aggressive response to perceived harmful stimuli. Aging itself has been described as the totality of a lifetime of chronic inflammation. Better understanding the causes and control of chronic inflammation thus can lead to profound improvements in human health and healthy longevity. With its deep trove of immunologists, rheumatologists, and cancer biologists, the NIH IRP can make major contributions to the characterization and control of inflammatory processes.

• Welcome and Introduction
  Michael Gottesman, M.D., Deputy Director for Intramural Research, NIH
• Cytokine signaling: basic and applied
  John O'Shea, M.D. (NIAMS)
• Advanced imaging of lesion repair in multiple sclerosis
  Daniel Reich, M.D., Ph.D. (NINDS)
• The NIH Center for Human Immunology
  Neal Young, M.D. (NHLBI)
• Panel Discussants: Rachel Caspi, Ph.D. (NEI), Stephen Katz, M.D., Ph.D. (NIAMS), and Thomas Wynn, Ph.D. (NIAID)

This page was last updated on Friday, March 12, 2021