R a Still The Second Best Thing About Payday
National Medal of Science Winner HIGHLIGHTS Serendipity and Sweat in Science Wilson To Give NIH Director's 'Frog Man' Daly Follows Curiosity Lecture, Sept. 11 A Consuming To Ends of the Earth By Joanna Mayo Interest in Toxins "The Future of Life," is the topic of the NIH By Anna M aria Gillis Director's Lecture that will be given by the hen he first contacted NIDDK's Dr. John W. Daly in People Needn't Die internationally acclaimed entomologist and 1990, John Dumbacher says he was afraid that the Before Their lime biological theorist Dr. Edward 0 . Wilson on Wsenior scientist would think "I was just a nutty kid." Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 3 p.m. in Masur But Dumbacher, then a Auditorium, Bldg. 10. graduate student in Lectures for the ornithology at the Wilson is the Pelligrino university research Public Mark 26th University of Chicago, professor emeritus at Harvard University, Year needed the help of one of honorary curator in entomology at the the world's leading Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, ~ natural product chemists and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. His Hispanic Heritage _ d to test what seemed a most recent book, The Future of Life (2002), Month Coming _~ :::S:: far-fetched idea. describes a biologically complex world that . . - . Although there was Scientists {from l) Bernhard Witkop, John th. · th · t'f' has been negatively affected by human . no mg m e sc1en 1 1c Daly and Takashi Tokuyama study the . . activity. Two decades of research on Interns Get structure of batrachotoxins, potent h~erature provmg tha~ biological diversity has led to his prediction Inspiring Talk from chemicals that affect nerve and muscle bJrds could store nox_1ous that one-half of the Earth's species is in NCI Director cells. (Photo circa 1969) compounds for chemical danger of disappearing by the end of this SEE DALY, PAGE 4 SEE WILSON, PAGE 2 From Sir, With Love (of Longer Life) EHRP System To Debut Sept. 9 Peto Says Halving Premature Death Rate Last February, the NIH Record informed Is An Achievable Goal NIH'ers about the new arm of a major By Rich McManus unseen construction project on campus. The project is an administrative undertak here aren't many in medicine who can authoritatively offer ing known as the NIH Business and Tprescriptions for the entire world, but Sir Richard Peto, who Research Support System, and its exten has built an internationally acclaimed career examining the big sion is the new automated personnel picture, from the vantage of medical statistics, may be one of system, the Enterprise Human Resources them. Returning to NTH for the second time in a month (the first and Payroll (EHRP) system. was to accept the 2002 Charles Mott Prize from the The EHRP is a Department of Health and General Motors Cancer Human Services initiative to replace its Research Foundation), Peto explained, before a Wednesday existing human resources (HR) and payroll U.S. Department Afternoon Lecture audience in system (known as IMPACT) with the EHRP of Health and Masur Auditorium on June system. The new system is based on Human Services 26, that halving the rate of PeopleSoft's web-based HR management National Institutes system for the federal government. premature death worldwide is of Health within the capacity of current ... medical expertise. Sir Richard Peto meets with guests The EHRP system provides a tool for: NIH September 3, 2002 T he major culprits in causing in the Special Events office before SEE EHRP SYSTEM, PAGE 2 Vol. LIV, No. 18 SEE PETO, PAGE 6 giving his talk in Masur Auditorium. WILSON, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 EHRP SYSTEM, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 century. In his book, Wilson unveils a plan to leadership to manage the NIH workforce strategi conserve Earth's natural biological diversity, and cally; minimizing reporting discrepancies; reducing makes a passionate plea for quick and decisive duplicate data. action. Implementation of the system will enable HHS to: With the new book as the basis of his lecture, enhance payroll operations; manage both vacant and Wilson will discuss his extensive research, and his filled positions; reduce paper and minimize redun Dr. Sheldon S. plan for the rescue of Earth's biological heritage. In dant systems. Miller has been the process, he will explore ethical and religious EHRP end users can look forward to an opportu named NEI bases of the conservation movement and challenge nity to use the latest web-based technology and scientific director. the idea that environmentally sound policy cannot increased data accuracy. Former/ya coexist with economic growth. NIH'ers will still have access to Employee Express professor of molecular and cell Wilson earned B.S. and M .A. degrees in biology and should not experience any changes as a result of biology at the from the University of Alabama, and a Ph.D. in the EHRP implementation. University of biology from Harvard University. He joined the The HHS Program Support Center is providing California, Harvard faculty in 1956 as a researcher and profes EHRP training for NIH end users through Sept. 6. Berkeley, he has sor of zoology, specializing in entomology. Among The EHRP system is scheduled for implementation focused his his accomplishments is the development (with on Sept. 9. For more information visit http:// research on Robert H. MacArthur) of rhe theory of biogeogra ehrp.nih.gov/. Iii understanding the phy, a basic part of regulation and modern ecology and NIH Hosts Pavilion at Black Family Reunion function of conservation biology, and epithelial layers As part of its outreach efforts to address health throughout the the creation of the disparities, NIH will participate in che 17th annual body, especially discipline of sociobiology, National Black Family Reunion Celebration Sept. 7- in 1975. Wilson also epithelia from the 8 on the grounds of the Washington Monument. breast, lung and edited the 1988 volume NIH has reserved a pavilion to educate the public eye. He is also Biodiversity, which about its commitment to conduct and support developing animal introduced the term and research that will result in improved health for all models of retinal drew worldwide attention people. The National Council of Negro Women disease to help to the subject. This reunion attracts more than 500,000 people. All are establish thera volume and Wilson's welcome to attend. Admission is free. For more peutic interve11- book, The Diversity of tions. Miller has information about the NIH exhibit, call Joan Lee of Life, published in 1992, authored or co NEI (496-8990), Levon Parker of NINDS (496- authored more assembled knowledge 5332) or Frederick Allen Whittington Jr. of OD Dr. Edward 0. \'Qi/son about the magnitude of than 60 scientific (594-3591).liJ papers, and has biodiversity and the received co11ti1111- growing threats to it. His subsequent book, 011s grant support Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998), from NIH since brought together the sciences, humanities and the 1978. He is a arts into a broad study of human knowledge. N I H R f a R member of several Wilson has written more than 3 70 articles, and □ Publi
Randy Schools (l), president of the NIH Recreation FEW Holds Meeting, Sept. 10 & Welfare Association, and Dave Smith (second from l), executive director of Special Love/Camp The Bethesda chapter of Federally Employed Women (FEW) will host a brown bag meeting on Tuesday, Fantastic, accept a check from Gary Daum and Sept. 10 from noon to 1 p.m. in Bldg. 40, Conf. Rm. Steve Soroka (r) of the NIH Community Orchestra, 1201-1203. Alisa Green, program specialist for the who presented the gift to the R&W Foundation to NIH Work and Family Life Center and telework assist with various patient needs on the NIH coordinator at NIH, will present results from a GSA campus. study exploring the benefits of teleworking. All are welcome to attend. El DALY, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 defense, Dumbacher was certain the flesh and the cost of getting the frogs was prohibitive until feathers of the Pitohui contained toxins. While Daly got involved. "NIH was paying me $16 a day handling the bird in the field in Papua New Guinea, per diem-far, far less than what was being asked by Dumbacher had cut his hand and licked the wound. professionals to collect in the dangerous rain forests His mouth numbed. He also of Colombia," says Daly. knew that the locals wouldn't The frogs collected near Rfo San Juan yielded eat what they called the several batrachotoxins, which were featured in a "rubbish bird" unless it was 1966 article in Medical World News. Charles skinned and specially prepared Myers, then a herpetology graduate student in to make it safe. Panama, chanced upon that story. He wrote to Daly Dumbacher sent samples to and proposed they collaborate on a study of related Daly and called every 3 poisonous Panamanian frogs to determine whether months to track progress. bright coloration and toxicity are linked. The two "Around Thanksgiving, Daly have worked together ever since. called and said, 'We need In fact, if Myers had never contacted him, Daly more tissue. This looks like muses that his nearly 40 years of frog alkaloid work it's poisonous."' may have ended with his initial Colombian forays. '.'No other chemists rose to Daly (r) poses "Without Chuck Myers, this program would never the bait," says Daly of the bird project. The chief of have happened. He came up with a great deal of the with former NIDDK's section on pharmacodynamics didn't money for the field work, planned the logistics and postdoctoral expect the birds to be especially toxic, but curiosity worked on requisite permits." fellow Kenneth made him prepare and test the extracts anyway. "I Myers, now a world-renowned herpetologist based Seamon in injected them into a mouse, and within minutes it at the American Museum of Natural History in New 1983, shortly had convulsions and died," adds Daly. York, sees his collaboration with Daly as one where after they Soon Daly began mentoring Dumbacher, and he a taxonomist and chemist taught each other. "I was discovered that worked on the project with chemists Thomas Spande interested in the taxonomic and evolutionary forskolin was a and Martin Garraffo, two of his long-term NIDDK implications of the toxins, which also have novel powerful collaborators. pharmacological properties," says Myers. "Scien research tool. After Daly isolated the toxin, Garraffo did a mass tists talk about doing this kind of interdisciplinary spectrum and called Daly that weekend with the work, but we don't often see it." toxin's molecular weight and spectral analysis. The Myers taught Daly how to use museum collection pattern of chemical fragments Garraffo described records, some dating back to explorations in the was one that Daly recognized right away-he had 1800s, to pick field sites. "You see someplace from seen it before during analysis of compounds in where 20 or 30 frogs were preserved and you know extracts from skins of poison-dart frogs that he'd where to go," says Daly. collected nearly 30 years before. "I knew this had to To get to their gathering sites, the researchers have be a batrachotoxin," says Daly, still excited about traveled by jeep, pack animal and dugout canoe and making that connection. Finding the potent neuro on foot. "Our field work was not to biological toxic alkaloids in birds had defied his expectations. research stations, but to quite remote areas," says "You don't know how serendipitous this was," Myers. Initially, this concerned Myers, who feared adds Dumbacher. "Of all the natural product Daly would get lost. It was an unfounded worry: chemists in the world who could have looked at it, "John has a built-in compass." John did. Another lab might have taken a couple of Once in the field, the two had a simple test to years to figure out what it was." Since the Pitohui decide whether to take a particular frog. "ft finding, the group has also found a range of involved touching the frog, then sampling it on the batrachotoxins in another bird called Ifrita kowaldi. tongue. If you got a burning sensation, then you Daly, who has been at NIH since 1958, hadn't knew this was a frog you ought to collect," says planned on becoming an expert on bioactive alka Daly. A healthy sense of self-preservation did loids. But he got started on this research path in prevent them from tasting Phyllobates terribilis, a 1963 when Bernhard Witkop, then his lab chief, Colombian frog the locals handle with caution asked him to go to western Colombia to work on because a single one contains enough batrachotoxins toxins from poison-dart frogs. Daly thinks he was to kill a dozen or more people. "an ideal person for this job because I'd always been The frogs Daly, Myers and their colleagues eventu interested in biology." As a child in Oregon, he ally collected cover a wide territory-Panama, collected frogs, snakes and lizards and kept terrari Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Argen ums in his basement so he could breed what he'd tina, Madagascar, Australia and Thailand- and their found. skins have yielded more than 500 natural sub Witkop wanted to study the frogs' chemistry, but stances, mainly alkaloids that the animals picked up from their diet of ants, millipedes, beetles and other Daly's group showed that pumiliotoxins arthropods. "The frogs are much better have potential as heart stimulants because bioprospectors than I am," says Daly. "They're the of their effects on the ion channels in that ones that found the chemicals in the arthropods." organ. They also demonstrated that "When we got started, there was only one alkaloid epibatidine, a trace alkaloid from an known in a vertebrate and that was samandarine Ecuadorean frog, was 200 times more from the European fire salamander," says Daly. potent than morphine as a painkiller, and Initially, he thought that the frogs made their own that it acts not through morphine-sensitive alkaloids because scientists who grew the sala targets, but through receptors for nicotine. manders in captivity said the salamanders produced Many syntheses of this potent alkaloid the alkaloids on their own, a belief that threw Daly have been developed in labs around the off track for a while. "One frog can have as many world, and one analog made it into as 70 different alkaloids," says Daly. "Certainly, clinical trials for the treatment of chronic they wouldn't have the separate biosynthetic pain. "I'm a firm believer that if you find machinery for all of them." a compound that will target one macro Myers says Daly was "dogged" in his determina molecule, then you'll be able to learn tion to learn the source of the alkaloids. Daly says something important," he says. In 1973, Daly he, like most scientists, was initially skeptical that Daly, a National Academy of Sciences member, has collected toxin the alkaloids came from an environmental source. received many honors for his work. Most recently, containing To test whether animals acquired or made their own the American Chemical Society gave him the 2002 frogs near Rio chemical defenses, Daly and colleagues took captive Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Saija in western raised frogs that had no alkaloids in their skin and Products. The award cites his "pioneering contribu fed them crickets dusted with alkaloids from wild tions to natural product chemistry, organic chemis Colombia. frogs or with leaf-litter insects. The frogs fed try, enzymology, neuropharmacology, membrane Skinning the alkaloid-laced crickets did indeed sequester the biology, and evolutionary herpetology, which are poison dart alkaloids in their skin. More recently, Daly and his truly without equal in contemporary science." frog colleagues have shown that one group of Australian Intellectual curiosity is the driving force behind Phyllobates frogs make one type of alkaloid and sequester Daly's approach, says his colleague Spande. He likes terribilis another type that they get from their environment. "research that answers some nagging question that required T hat various unrelated frogs and toads have devel may first appear to be tangential or even inconse protective gear. oped the ability to sequester alkaloids indicates the quential to the main mission." importance of chemical defense in their evolution, For instance, "John did not dismiss out of hand, as says Daly. many would have, the possibility that any bird could For all his interest in field biology, Daly considers be toxic, but was willing to take the time to check himself a pharmacologist with a strong background this unlikely hypothesis, and bingo, the world now in chemistry. He trained as an organic chemist at had a major, fascinating (but initially controversial) Stanford University and as a pharmacologist with problem in chemical ecology to wrestle with," says Julius Axelrod. Early in Daly's Nlli career, he Spande. worked with Axelrod on catecholamines and many This tendency of Daly's to challenge more popular aspects of drug metabolism, which was useful hypotheses is what makes "him true to the scientific training for Daly's future work on animal-derived way," says Dr. Kenneth Seamon, vice president of alkaloids. "I learned pharmacology and physiology drug development for Immunex Corp. and a former from a real master," says Daly. "He instilled in me postdoctoral fellow in Daly's lab. Seamon worked an appreciation for designing simple experiments to with Daly on what some scientists consider his most probe complex questions." far-reaching work. Together, they discovered that Four classes of alkaloids-the batrachotoxins, forskolin, a cardioactive chemical from the Coleus histrionicotoxins, pumiliotoxins and epibatidine plant, could activate one of the most important discovered by Daly have remarkable biological enzymes in the body. The enzyme adenylyl cyclase activity on specific ion channels essential to nerve stimulates production of cyclic AMP, which, in turn, and muscle function. controls many biochemical reactions in cells. Their Daly and his colleagues demonstrated that discovery that forskolin could be used to increase batrachotoxins selectively opened sodium channels cyclic AMP levels gave scientists a much-needed way that control nerve and muscle cells. They then to determine the physiological and pharmacological modified a batrachotoxin to make a radioactive role of cyclic AMP in organs, tissues and cells. analog. Scientists now use this radioactive probe to Seamon learned three things from his mentor that study whether and how local anesthetics, anticon he practices today: Don't prejudge what a scientific vulsive drugs and other medicines attach to sodium outcome will be, collect a lot of information before channels. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 DALY. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 PETO, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 drawing a conclusion and integrate disciplines. "It early death are smoking, preventable illnesses of is astounding how [Daly] combines biology, chemis childhood (tetanus, diarrhea, measles, perinatal try, biochemistry and pharmacology. His ability to complications), and vascular diseases for which integrate is unique." there are solid, classical tools for diagnosis, and Besides intellectual breadth, Daly has other abilities emerging therapies, chiefly statins, that are effective, that contribute to his success. His colleagues said Peto, who is professor of medical statistics and universally comment on his capacity for long hours, epidemiology at the University of Oxford in En his open door policy, and, as NIDDK's Martin gland. Garraffo says, "his willingness to explain things to To hear Peto tell it, the only theoretically safe 'mere mortals.'" smoker is one who lights up just before facing a Daly's work ethic was greatly influenced by Dr. firing squad, beyond all hope of rescue; every other Joseph E. Rall, who was NIDDK's scientific director smoker is going to lose a percentage of expected when Daly was learning to be a scientist. "He told lifespan every time he or she smokes. The only me 'Any good scientist spends 60 hours a week on it because he loves it,"' says Daly. And there's more to research than the bench or field. "I feel strongly about the obligations of being Peto (I) accepts a scientist," says Daly. Reviewing papers and giving commemorative Tae Kwon Do feedback are high on the list. Rall gave him feed statuette from Beginner's back regularly, and "I try to do the same with my NCI's Dr. Joseph Class group, maybe not always successfully, but try." Fraumeni. Peto I gave the annual "He takes being a mentor seriously," adds Robert S. Gordon, The NIH Tae Kwon Dumbacher, now a Smithsonian Institution re Do School is Jr. Lecture on June searcher. "He was always over my shoulder and 26. offering a made sure I didn't screw up the chemistry," says the beginner's class ornithologist. Daly also guided Dumbacher to all difference between the condemned man and the for adults and the right papers, gave him advice on negotiating habitual smoker is how far away, in time, the firing mature teens collection permit issues, encouraged him to learn squad stands; eventually both perish early. starting Sept. 9. what local people knew about an animal and helped Peto began with a graph of the French mortality The class w ill him get his first major paper published. "There are rate, from 1900 onward, showing that roughly one meet in the lots of skills that students have to learn. John taught quarter of the population died in early childhood, Malone Center me what I needed to be professionally competent, one-quarter died in early life, one-quarter perished (Bldg. 31C, B4 not just a scientist." in middle age (which he defined as "that period level, next to the Daly plans to stay at the bench and go into the between youth and old age that is variously reck NIH Fitness field for as long as he can. He would have liked oned to suit the reckoner"), and one-quarter expired Center) from 6 to 8 another chance to collect Phyllobates terribilis and in late age. "Most of these deaths [in all categories p.m . on Mondays find the source of its batrachotoxins, he says, "But but late-age] are avoidable," he suggested. Indeed, and Wednesdays, it's too hard to get a collecting permit in Colombia since 1950, the rate of premature death has dimin and will continue now." He's shifted his collecting efforts to Mada ished considerably. "T he presenr is not as bad as for approximately gascar and Thailand, where he has new frogs to find the past," he said. 2 months until and new students to mentor. Comparing actual death rates in the 20th century participants can Daly has no career regrets. He's liked NIH, and, to what we might expect in the 21st, Peto said about be integrated into even when other offers came he never thought 20 million people are thought to have perished in the regular school seriously about them. "I love research so much that the flu epidemic of 1918-1919 (though that could training. For disrupting it to move someplace else has never have been the number who died in India alone, he information, call appealed to me," he says. "NIH has been a blessing noted; 40 million or 50 million is probably the more Andrew Schwartz, to me. I don't think I would have prospered in an accurate global guess). Another 200 million died in 402-5197, or visit academic world where I'd have to defend my war, or war-related famine (the worst famine on on line at http:// research and lie about where it was going, because, record occurred 40 years ago in China, he said, www.recgov.org/ in many cases, I didn't know where it was going to when between 20 million and 40 million people are r&w / go." Iii thought to have died) . And 2,000 million died of nihtaekwondo.html. preventable childhood diseases, including cholera. Stuttering, Speech Articulation Study Today, about 60 million people die per year, NIH seeks children ages 5-12 for a study to better worldwide, and about twice that number are born. understand stuttering and speech articulation The deaths, early in the 21st century, occur as disorders. There is no charge for those who take follows: About 10 million die in early childhood part. For more information, call 1-800-411-1222 (though over the last 50 years, there has been a (TTY 1-866-411-1010). Iii threefold reduction in childhood mortality, leaving out the effects of HIV); another 10 million die in the been lost. "This ought to be common knowledge age range 5-34 (again, excluding HIV numbers, among smokers, but it's not," he protested. which are expanding); and 20 million die in both Half of all cancer mortality in the U.S. was to middle age (35-69) and late age (70-plus). Peto bacco-related throughout the 1970's and 1980's, thinks several of those age ranges are ripe for the Peto said, but the rates are gently declining. He halving. credited changes in cigarette composition as a The earliest age range is a good target, he said, significant factor in reducing the cancer death rate, because many childhood ailments are preventable. but quipped that NCI hates to hear him acknowl "But halving death at middle age is very hard due to edge this. HIV, an epidemic that is increasing fast," he said. The United Kingdom has also witnessed an "ex Peto paused to condemn denial as a culprit in traordinary decrease in lung cancer mortality" in the addressing AIDS adequately; those who don't believe past half-century, he reported, but the trend is HIV is the causative agent have only to examine a directly the opposite in France and Hungary, where paper published in Nature in 1995 showing conclu smoking in both male and female populations is sively, among a population of severe hemophilia rising, with predictably dire results. Peto found it patients in Britain (half of whom were unwittingly morbidly funny to have heard a Hungarian scientist infected by HIV when pooled blood harvested for rail against the perils of air pollution in his country, clotting factor became tainted), that HIV is the cause all the while puffing madly on a cigarette. of AIDS. Smoking is also disastrously common in China, "HIV and tobacco are the only big causes of death where two-thirds of adults smoke, and India, where still on the rise," he said. Of the 130 million people 40 percent of the population smokes, Peto said. "If born this year worldwide, about 20 million will die we keep going the way we are, there will be 1 billion before middle age, and some 40 million will die in tobacco-related deaths in the 21st century (com middle age (20 milJion from vascular diseases-Peto pared with 100 million deaths in the 20th century]," warned of an alarming increase in obesity in China, he predicted. Adults need to quit, and the percent India and North America that will elevate diabetes age of kids who start must be reduced, he pre and its associated complications-and 10 million scribed. from cancer). "Can these be halved?" he wondered. The death rate from cancers not attributable to "What can we actually do with our present knowl smoking has been halved in the past 50 years, Peto edge? Well, we can take the known causes (of said, adding that "this could happen for other causes premature mortality) a bit more seriously." of death, too." The child survival rate also is Peto said that classical risk factors for heart improving, but needs substantial resources world disease-blood pressure, lipid profile and history of wide, he argued. His talk, given in honor of the late smoking-have an underestimated power as predic NIH epidemiologist Dr. Robert S. Gordon, Jr., ended tors of early death. A meta-analysis of 59 heart whimsically: "Still, however, only a small propor disease studies showed that each 20 mmHg differ tion will survive to 100-halving premature death ence in systolic blood pressure involved a two-fold wilJ not give us eternal life." Iii difference in vascular mortality in middle age, he said. Both diastolic and systolic values "are very strong and very important determinants of the risk of vascular disease," Peto stated. "Both are more Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration Begins, Sept. 19 important than they are generally held to be." The NIH Hispanic Employee Organization will host the 2002 NIH Even modest downward tweaks in blood pressure Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration Part 1, "Language and Access are associated with real benefits, he added. Peto to Care," on Thursday, Sept. 19 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Lipsett suggested that a strategy of many small interventions Amphitheater, Bldg. 10. of a cheap and easy kind (aspirin, statins) would Following remarks by NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni and U.S. have a substantial cumulative effect. Of statins he Surgeon General Richard Carmona, lectures will be given by Dr. joked, "One little pill can turn your cholesterol level Thomas Munte, Otto von Guericke University, "How To Handle Two from that of an American to a rural Chinese." With Languages with One Brain: A Neuroscience Perspective"; Dr. Nilda one-half of all adult deaths due to vascular disease, Peragallo, president, National Association of Hispanic Nurses, Peto urged a return to an emphasis on classical risk "Language and Culture: Bridges or Barriers?"; and Dr. Carlos factors-not high-tech, expensive and hard-to Zarate, chief of NIMH's mood disorders research unit, "Pilot His deliver diagnostics and therapeutics. panic Research Initiative in Mood Disorder Patients." Turning to tobacco, Peto highlighted three main An exhibit and reception follow the program until 2 p.m. in the BlC messages: The risk is big-half of those who smoke atrium of Bldg. 10. Sign language interpretation will be provided. die by the habit; one-quarter of those die in middle For reasonabie accommodation, contact the NIH Office of Equal age, losing many years of life; and if you quit Opportunity and Diversity Management, 496-6301. smoking, you can salvage years that would have Von Eschenbach Lectures Summer Interns Dr. Michele Kiely recently joined NICHD as chief of the n July 11, jeans, sneakers, T-shirts and even a collaborative studies unit in the Division of Epidemiol Ocouple of baseball hats comprised the wardrobe ogy, Statistics and Prevention Research. In this capacity, of the crowd in Bldg. 1 's Wilson Hall. Only one suit she has become scientific advisor to the NIH-D. C. was to be seen-worn by National Cancer Institute Initiative to Reduce Infant Mortality in Minority director Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, who gave the Populations in the District of Columbia. Her research annual Director's Lecture to the class of 2002 interest is the application Cancer Research Training Award (CRTA) interns. of epidemiology to public "How many of you have ever been to Los health practice. She plans Alamos?" he asked. Several hands went up. Von and conducts research Eschenbach talked about Los Alamos that seeks to reduce the in the context of moments of "strate high infant mortality rate in the District. Her gic inflection," a concept he attributed professional experience to Andrew S. Grove. In his book, includes positions as Only the Paranoid Survive, Grove research scientist at the discusses strategic inflection, which he New York State Institute explains as the time "when the balance for Basic Research in of forces shifts from the old structure, Developmental Disabilities; epidemiologist at the from the old ways of doing business Division of AIDS, NIAID; chief epidemiologist at the and the old ways of competing, to the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, HRSA; and director new." Von Eschenbach compared the of the Cincinnati pediatric research group, Cincinnati 20th century quest to understand the Children's Hospital and University of Cincinnati. She is NCI director Dr. currently the American co-editor of Paediatric and fundamental nature of matter, and the work in Los Perinatal Epidemiology. Andrew von Alamos in particular, to today's quest to understand Eschenbach the cell; both he called "moments of strategic Chamber Music Concert, Sept. 8 speaks to CRTA inflection." interns. The director then gave the students an overview of The Rock Creek Chamber Players will begin their research at NCI and reminded them that they are in tenth season of performances at 3 p.m. on Sunday, positions of great opportunity to help eradicate Sept. 8 in the Clinical Center's 14th floor assembly cancer. He sent the students back to their labs with: hall. The free public concert, sponsored by the "I wish you the very best of luck. I wish I could recreation therapy section, will include Telemann's switch places with you." Gulliver Suite for two violins, Krommer's quartet in For the third year in a row, NCl's Office of B flat for bassoon and strings, Ravel's sonata for Diversity and Employment Programs sponsored the violin and piano and Copland's nonet for strings. lecture to honor summer science CRTA interns, For more information call (202) 337-8710. D numbering between 450 and 500 students. The lecture gives the interns an Wednesday Afternoon Lectures opportunity to meet one another, The Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series- held on to meet the NCI director in a its namesake day at 3 p.m. in Masur Auditorium, special setting, to be exposed to Bldg. 10-features Dr. Edward 0 . Wilson on Sept. NCI leadership outside of the 11 (see story on p. 1). lab and to get a broader perspec On Sept. 18, Dr. Elizabeth A. Komives will speak tive on activities beyond their on "Biophysics of Protein-Protein Interactions." assigned lab or project. She is professor, department of chemistry, University "At other internships I've had, of California, San Diego. I never had the experience of a For more information or for reasonable accommo top level speaker discussing the dation, call Hilda Madine, 594-5595. Ill importance of interns," said Chris Zalewski, a CRTA intern Ian Gifford who attended the lecture. He is working on se Trauma Survivors Sought displays his T quencing cat genes at NCI's facility in Frederick, Volunteers are needed for research studies looking at shirt from the Md. He said von Eschenbach's talk was very Director's Lecture how people respond to and cope with a traumatic for the CRTA inspirational. experience. Studies for people over 18 years old interns. Adam Brandt, another intern at NCI's Frederick may include brain imaging, measurement of stress site, who will start his senior year in high school this hormones and a free trial of commonly used medica fall, said the Director's Lecture was very interesting tions for eligible participants. Compensation and informative. He has always loved biology. 'Tm available for select studies. Call 1-866-MAP-NIMH having a lot of fun," he said of his summer at (1-866-627-6464) or TTY 1-866-411-1010. Ill NCI.-Elizabeth Saloom 0