Plenary Sessions

• Plenary Session I
• Plenary Session II
• Plenary Session III

Plenary Session I

Celebrating NIH IRP Contributions to Curing Metabolic Diseases

Metabolism comprises the chemical processes that sustain life, from the conversion of food to energy, to the assembly of proteins and all key molecules, to the elimination of waste products. Metabolic diseases disrupt these core bodily functions, setting forth a cascade of debilitating symptoms and ultimately death if not successfully managed. The labs and clinics of the NIH IRP have been at the forefront of the identification and treatment of metabolic diseases.

For this first plenary session of the 2019 NIH Research Festival, we open with Nobel and Lasker laurate and NIH alumnus Ferid Murad, who discovered how nitric oxide relaxes smooth muscle by elevating intracellular cyclic GMP, a breakthrough for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Marston Linehan will then recap how, over the course of three decades, his laboratory has defined kidney cancer as a metabolic disease. Through the identification of genes for common forms of kidney cancer and the description of their pathways, Marston has developed treatments that have resulted in the regression of metastatic cancer in patients with type 1 and type 2 papillary kidney cancer. Next, Josephine Egan will summarize her group’s remarkable progress in identifying therapeutic targets for treating Type II diabetes mellitus. Her lab has identified the GLP-1 receptor as a promising target for the development of insulinotropic agents including the GLP-1 receptor ligand exendin-4 that may provide a new approach for the treatment of diabetes. Lastly, Kevin Hall will pull us back to view the multi-organ metabolic disease that we call obesity. Well known for his study of contestants on the reality television program “The Biggest Loser,” Kevin and his lab have shown themselves to be the biggest winners in understanding why it is so hard to maintain a healthy weight.

Moderator: John Gallin, M.D., NIH Clinical Center Scientific Director

Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D.
NIH Alumnus and Nobel and Lasker Laureate&
Discovery of Nitric Oxide and Cyclic
GMP in Cell Signaling and Drug Development

W. Marston Linehan, M.D.
Chief, NCI Urologic Oncology Branch
Targeting the Genetic and Metabolic Basis of Kidney Cancer

Josephine Egan, M.D.
NIA Clinical Director; Chief, NIA Diabetes Section
From Insulin to Incretins

Kevin Hall, Ph.D.
Chief, NIDDK Integrative Physiology Section
What’s Most Important for Weight Control: Diet Carbs, Calories, or Quality?

Plenary Session II

Celebrating NIH Efforts to Combat Physical and Emotional Pain

Pain, both physical and emotional, so often intertwined, has had a crippling effect on the health of Americans, representing the primary cause for the decline in U.S. life expectancy over the last three recorded years (2015–2018). One well-known driver has been the opioid epidemic, leading to an increase in drug overdoses and death. The NIH IRP always has risen to the challenge to confront complex public health emergencies, such as HIV–AIDS and nutritional deficiencies, and pain is no exception. This plenary session will feature four stellar intramural researchers who have made extraordinary strides in treating physical and psychological pain, including non-opioid-based treatments.

Moderator: Amy Hauck Newman, Ph.D., NIDA Acting Scientific Director

Carlos Zarate Jr., M.D.
Chief, NIMH Experimental Therapeutics & Pathophysiology Branch
Antidepressant Drug Discovery: Taking the Road Less Traveled

Lauren Atlas, Ph.D.
Investigator, NCCIH Section on Affective Neuroscience and Pain
How Psychological Factors Influence Responses to Pain and Opioid Analgesics

George Koob, Ph.D.
NIAAA Director; Chief, NIDA Neurobiology of Addiction Section
Opioid Addiction: “The Gain in the Brain Is in the Pain”

Andrew Mannes, M.D.
Chief, Clinical Center Department of Perioperative Medicine
Non-opioid Therapy for Treating Severe, Refractory Cancer Pain

Plenary Session III

Celebrating Cutting Edge Technologies at the IRP

Did you know the toothbrush was invented at the NIH? Ok, we made that one up. But NIH scientists and engineers have developed hundreds of instruments and technologies that have become mainstays in research labs and clinics, such as Matrigel cell-culture substrate, co-invented by Hynda Kleinman, and the myriad advances in positron emission tomography pioneered by Louis Sokoloff. This third and final plenary of the 2019 NIH Research Festival will highlight four significant technological advances whose reverberations already are being felt in the scientific research community.

Moderator: Bruce Tromberg, Ph.D., NIBIB Director

Adam Phillippy, Ph.D.
Head, NHGRI Genome Informatics Section
Can Nanopore Sequencing Finally Finish the Human Genome?

Elizabeth Kang, M.D.
Head, Hematotherapeutics Unit, Genetic Immunotherapy Section, LCIM, NIAID
Genetically Modified Cells for Chronic Granulomatous Disease: Moving Forward the Clinical Benefit

Hari Shroff, Ph.D.
Senior Investigator, NIBIB Section on High Resolution Optical Imaging
Faster, Sharper, Deeper, Longer: New Optical and Computational Techniques for Use in Biomedical Imaging

Hannah Valantine, M.D.
Senior Investigator, NHLBI Laboratory of Transplantation Genomics
The Liquid Biopsy: Cell-Free DNA for Early Detection of Organ Rejection

This page was last updated on Monday, March 15, 2021