Current Lecture Season

All lectures will be in person in Lipsett Amphitheater, Building 10, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET (new time) with remote viewing at https://videocast.nih.gov.

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WALS 2025–2026 season poster

Neonatal Genomic Sequencing: The Past, The Present, and the Unchartered, Controversial Future

Jill L. Maron, MD, MPH
Brown University

In June of 2021, Care New England announced the appointment of Jill L. Maron, MD, MPH, to Chief of Pediatrics at Women & Infants Hospital. We enthusiastically welcomed Dr. Maron into our Department of Pediatrics on October 1, 2021. She serves as the Oh-Zopfi Endowed Chair of Pediatrics at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Previously, Dr. Maron served as the Vice Chair of Pediatric Research and Executive Director of the Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI) at Tufts Children’s Hospital.

The Emotional Brain: Role in Depression and Addiction

Huda Akil, Ph.D.
Michigan Neuroscience Institute; University of Michigan

Huda Akil is a neuroscientist whose research has contributed to the understanding of the neurobiology of emotions, including pain, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. Akil and her colleagues are best known for providing the first physiological evidence for a role of endorphins in the brain and demonstrating that endorphins are activated by stress and can cause pain inhibition. Akil is a Gardner C. Quarton Distinguished Professor of Neurosciences in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School.

A Cure for Hepatitis C: Now What?

Charles M. Rice, Ph.D.
The Rockefeller University

Rolla E. Dyer Lecture

Dr. Rice is the Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Chair in Virology and serves as Head of the Laboratory for Virology and Infectious Disease at The Rockefeller University. He is one of the world’s most accomplished virologists and a prominent figure in research on members of the Flaviviridae including hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Paradigms

Elena Fuentes-Afflick, MD, MPH
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)

As chief scientific officer, Elena Fuentes-Afflick, MD, MPH, leads AAMC programs that support medical research and the training of physician-scientists and researchers in academic medicine. In this role, she provides leadership and vision for addressing research and science policy and other related critical issues facing academic medicine, medical schools and academic health systems.

Design of New Protein Functions Using Deep Learning

David Baker, PhD
Institute for Protein Design

NIH Director’s Lecture

David Baker is a Nobel laureate, professor of biochemistry, HHMI investigator, and director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington. His lab develops software for protein design and uses it to create molecules that address challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. Recent work includes the development of machine learning methods for generating functional proteins. 

Tissue Engineering Across Lifespan

Jennifer H. Elisseeff, PhD
John Hopkins Biomedical Engineering and School of Medicine

NIH Director’s Lecture

Jennifer Elisseeff is the Morton Goldberg Professor of Ophthalmology at the School of Medicine, and the interim head of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, with an appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is a pioneer in the development and commercial translation of injectable biomaterials for regenerative therapies.

Why Women Won

Claudia Goldin, Ph.D.
Harvard University

NIH Director’s Lecture

Claudia Goldin is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and holds the Lee and Ezpeleta Professorship of Arts & Sciences at Harvard University. She was the director of the NBER’s Development of the American Economy program from 1989 to 2017 and is a co-director of the NBER's Gender in the Economy group. Goldin was awarded the 2023 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes.”

Tick Me Off. Please.

Erol Fikrig, MD
Yale University School of Medicine

Erol Fikrig, MD, is chief of Infectious Diseases and specializes in treating patients with vector-borne diseases including Dengue fever, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and malaria.

Vector-borne diseases are caused by infections transmitted to humans and other animals by mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and other blood-feeding invertebrates.

Endurance Exercise Produces a Whole-Body Multi-Organ Molecular Reaction: a MoTPAC study.

Sue Bodine, Ph.D.
OKLAHOMA MEDICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Sue Bodine is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Her current research is focused on the study of the neuromuscular system and its response and adaptation to various stressors, including exercise, disuse and aging. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has held positions in both academia and the biotechnology industry.

Functions of Diverse Fibroblast Populations in Lung Health and Disease

Dean Sheppard, MD
University of California, San Francisco

Dean Sheppard is a Professor of Medicine. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying pulmonary (and other organ) fibrosis, acute lung injury and immune responses to solid tumors. One aim of the research is to identify new therapeutic targets to ultimately improve the treatment of each of these common diseases. The work began with basic investigation of how cells use members of the integrin family to detect, modify and respond to spatially restricted extracellular clues and how these responses contribute to the development of common lung diseases.

This page was last updated on Wednesday, August 27, 2025