NIH Director’s Lecture

The Director’s Lectures feature leading researchers from around the globe. Nominated by scientists and interest groups throughout NIH, the speakers are specifically approved by the NIH Director. There are typically three NIH Director’s Lectures per year.

Deciphering the Neural Code of Speech

Edward Chang, M.D.
UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences

NIH Director’s Lecture

Dr. Edward Chang is a neurosurgeon who treats adults with difficult-to-control epilepsy, brain tumors, trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm and movement disorders. He specializes in advanced brain mapping methods to preserve crucial areas for speech and motor functions in the brain. He also has extensive experience with implantable devices that stimulate specific nerves to relieve seizure, movement, pain and other disorders. He is the Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery. Chang's research focuses on the brain mechanisms for speech, movement, emotion, and learning.

Harnessing Chemical Interactions to Explore Tumor Cell Biological Responses to Fluctuations in Metal and Micronutrient Availability

Donita C. Brady, Ph.D.
Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania

NIH Director’s Lecture

The Brady Lab is part of the Department of Cancer Biology and the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Our research program at Penn is founded in a new paradigm in nutrient sensing and protein regulation, termed metalloallostery, where redox-active metals control kinase activity, and is advancing our knowledge in basic science and disease-focused areas.

Mechanisms of Phage-Derived Protein Antibiotic

William M. (Bil) Clemons, Jr., Ph.D.
California Institute of Technology, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

NIH Director’s Lecture

As antimicrobial resistance continues to expand, new ideas are required to address the growing threat. Phages, viruses of bacteria, offer many lessons that can be leveraged as opportunities to combat bacteria. In this lecture, Prof. Clemons will describe how some phages have developed simple, protein-based mechanisms for breaking through the bacterial cell wall and killing their host. These protein antibiotics can work independent of the phage, yet for years their mechanisms have remained mysterious. The mechanisms for several of these will be revealed.

The Future of CRISPR: What’s Ahead for Genome Editing

Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley

NIH Director’s Lecture

*Masur Auditorium* 

https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=54303

I will discuss FDA approval of the first CRISPR therapy, and ongoing research aimed at expanding access and reducing costs of CRISPR medicines.

Learning Objectives:

 1) How CRISPR genome editing works.

2) How CRISPR is used to treat patients with sickle cell disease.

3) Ongoing research into the accuracy and delivery of CRISPR therapies, which will make these medicines more widely available in the future.

Reducing Firearm Violence: A Public Health Approach

David Hemenway, Ph.D.
Harvard T.H. Chan, School of Public Health

NIH Director’s Lecture

https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=51124

The lecture will describe the enormity of the US gun violence problem and the public health approach for reducing that problem. It will illustrate the public health approach, including emphasizing the importance of data and research, with examples of ways to reduce suicide and unintentional firearm deaths.

Presentation Objectives:

NIH Director's Lecture with Kevan Shokat, Ph.D. "Overcoming The Undruggable Nature Of The Most Common Human Oncogene K-Ras"

Kevan Shokat, Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley

NIH Director’s Lecture

Kevan Shokat is a chemist who discovers drugs against some of the most common drivers of human cancers. He is best known for targeting a mutation that drives more than 1 in 10 lung cancers, opening up a new arena of cancer treatment discovery. The target, K-Ras, is the most common driver of cancer, and was considered “undruggable” by most cancer researchers after 40 years of failed attempts to block its function. Dr. Shokat’s discovery of a K-Ras blocker broke through this decades-old barrier and threw open the doors to a new class of cancer treatments.

Objectives:

Bitten: Why Are Some People More Attractive to Mosquitoes Than Others?

Leslie B. Vosshall, Ph.D.
HHMI

NIH Director’s Lecture

Leslie Vosshall wants to understand how environmental cues and internal physiology work together to guide complex animal behaviors. Vosshall and her team study this problem in mosquitoes and humans, applying approaches in neurobiology, behavior, genetics, and genomics. Vosshall’s team uses CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing tools to advance understanding of how the mosquitoes that spread dengue and yellow fever integrate sensory cues to hunt their human hosts.

The Secret Life of Introns

Tracy Johnson, Ph.D.
University of California, Los Angeles

NIH Director’s Lecture

Regulation of gene expression is crucial for every function carried out by the cell, from cell growth and proliferation to the ability of the cell to respond to its ever-changing environment. Hence, understanding cellular function and dysfunction is dependent upon deciphering these gene regulatory mechanisms. This is particularly challenging in the case of eukaryotic genes, which are often interrupted by long stretches of noncoding sequences (introns). These are removed from the newly synthesized RNA, and the remaining sequences (exons) are ligated together to form a mature messenger RNA.

The Future of Non-invasive Functional Imaging in the Era of Big Data

Damien Fair, Ph.D.
University of Minnesota

NIH Director’s Lecture

The Fair laboratory focuses on mechanisms and principles that underlie the developing brain. The majority of this work uses functional MRI and resting state functional connectivity MRI to assess typical and atypical populations. Dr. Fair is the co-director of the new Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain.

This page was last updated on Tuesday, August 10, 2021