NIEHS

At the 63rd annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) held March 10-14 in Salt Lake City, Utah, NIEHS scientists and staff presented cutting-edge research on artificial intelligence (AI), neurotoxicity testing, harmful algal…

Natural disasters, exposures with unknown health effects, and respiratory diseases caused by inhalation of harmful agents are just a few of the topics discussed at the April 23 meeting of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Board of…

“The COVID pandemic has laid bare the vulnerability of some populations, as well as health systems and infectious disease threats,” said Balbus. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS)Aiming to build climate and health equity literacy…

Rear Admiral Denise Hinton, chief scientist of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), inspired listeners at the 20th annual NIEHS Spirit Lecture on April 5. Her talk, titled “My Journey in Advancing, Promoting, and Protecting the…

Earth Day, celebrated April 22, saw NIEHS researchers and facilities managers take home a slew of honors from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIEHS’s own program, the…

Environmental health sciences research spans a variety of disciplines, such as toxicology, exposure science, epidemiology, and epigenetics, but that diversity presents a challenge. Sometimes, experts in one field use terms not shared by…

The NIEHS family said goodbye to a pioneering researcher and friend on April 23 when Sam Wilson, M.D., institute leader and chief scientist, passed away peacefully at his home in North Carolina. He was 82 years old. Wilson was deputy…

Last month, NIEHS kicked off its annual summer drive to collect food for disadvantaged communities as part of the greater Feds Feed Families effort across the federal government. The program encourages federal employees to donate food…

Mehta advises other fellows in postbac programs to trust the process and believe in themselves because perseverance pays off. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS)A potential therapy for pulmonary fibrosis, a lung scarring disease,…

Last month, 17 early-career scientists from NIEHS won the annual National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE). As in previous years, select postdoctoral trainees from across the 27 NIH institutes and…

When the pandemic forced NIEHS grantee Arthur Edison’s laboratory to shut down or go remote, the lab went remote. Out of what might otherwise have been a huge inconvenience came a golden opportunity to bring greater diversity into the…

The latest NIEHS Distinguished Lecture featured Sir Michael Marmot, Ph.D., professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London (UCL) and director of UCL’s Institute of Health Equity. Marmot, an expert on the social…

At its June 1-2 virtual meeting, the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council (NAEHSC) turned much of its attention to an emerging scientific field called the exposome.The term was first coined in 2005 and is conceptually…

Geospatial technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives. It helps us map our route, warns us when the air quality in our area is unhealthy, and even tracks our location when we are playing on our smart phones. But…

Geospatial technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives. It helps us map our route, warns us when the air quality in our area is unhealthy, and even tracks our location when we are playing on our smart phones. But…

“I’m a scientist today because of my high school biology teacher,” said Rick Woychik, Ph.D., director of NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program, to participants in this year’s NIEHS Science, Teachers, and Research Summer Experience…

Trainees play an important role at NIEHS by conducting much of the institute’s research into how the environment affects human health. Recently, two of those trainees were awarded prestigious postdoctoral fellowships that will not only…

Some 450 registrants from as far away as Japan, along with two dozen business, academic, and government exhibitors, took part virtually in the 24th annual NIEHS Biomedical Career Symposium, Aug. 26-31. Each year, the Career Symposium…

Chris Long, NIEHS Associate Director for Management and Executive Officer, retired in August, following 36 years in public service. His career launched at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and then he worked almost 14 years…

NIEHS efforts to store research samples more sustainably helped the National Institutes of Health (NIH) win the Top Government Organization Award in the 2021 for the second year in a row. The Freezer Challenge is a cold storage…

Robin Stanley, Ph.D., and Clarice Weinberg, Ph.D., are recipients of the 2021 NIEHS Scientific Director’s Award for Excellence. The institute scientists each receive $100,000 to advance their research efforts, which were recognized as…

NIEHS honored the hard work and dedication of its early-career scientists during the institute’s 12th annual Fellow Appreciation Week, held in late September. Camaraderie-building activities such as a trivia challenge and donut breakfast…

As the summer season drew to a close this past Labor Day, many NIEHS staff wrapped up their participation in the 2021 Feds Feed Families campaign, a national effort among federal employees to raise food and monetary donations for needy…

The Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization committed to improving human and environmental health, has awarded its inaugural Innovation Prize to former NIEHS and National Toxicology…

NIEHS researchers have developed a new breast cancer risk score that improves the ability of scientists and physicians to identify women who will develop the disease. The risk score is based on a naturally occurring chemical modification…

Rick Woychik, Ph.D., directs NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program. (Image courtesy of NIEHS) Readers of this column may know that I am passionate about advancing research into how our genes interact with the totality of…

Enhancing professional opportunities for Hispanic individuals across the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and removing barriers for disabled employees were some of the issues addressed during two recent talks in the NIEHS Diversity…

A year’s worth of outstanding effort by NIEHS scientists, administrative staff, and contractors was celebrated at the institute’s annual employee awards ceremony on Oct. 28.Employees’ perseverance during the COVID-19 pandemic received…

Ciro Amato, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the NIEHS Reproductive Developmental Biology Group, earned first place for his oral presentation at the prestigious International Symposium on the Biology of Vertebrate Sex Determination, which…

Hartung said that RECs are an important part of the equation for turning NIEHS into a net-zero energy campus. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS) With the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), the NIEHS campus has…

The compendium report of studies from the Consortium Linking Academic and Regulatory Insights on the Toxicity of Bisphenol A (CLARITY-BPA) was released Oct. 29. The project began in 2012 as a unique collaboration among NIEHS, the…

To Teddy Devereux, art and science are intertwined, much like the double helix of our DNA. Beginning more than a decade before her retirement from NIEHS in 2004, Devereux has quietly built a reputation as a glass artist, creating…

Hundreds of NIEHS staff and scientists gathered virtually Nov. 9 to honor America’s service members at the institute’s 2021 Veterans Day Celebration. The event featured two guest speakers from North Carolina-based veteran groups and…

In January, NIEHS welcomed two new tenure-track principal investigators to its ranks: Rajula Alleva Elango, Ph.D., and Julieta Lischinsky, Ph.D. Elango was recruited from a targeted search for the Genome Integrity and Structural Biology…

NIEHS Director Rick Woychik, Ph.D., and other institute leaders traveled to India in January to build collaborations with researchers there who are working to combat the health effects of environmental exposures, such as poor air…

“I've gained a lot of confidence at NIEHS, and I’m excited about what the future holds,” said Bridges. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS)NIEHS postbaccalaureate fellow Kamiya Bridges has received a 2021 Burroughs Wellcome Travel…

NIEHS has had an active recycling program since 1993, and as any staff scientist or other employee can attest, it can be a complicated process and easy to get wrong. Thankfully, Meredith Marley is here to explain it. “Remember that…

Luecke said it is remarkable how productive NIEHS scientists have been during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS)NIEHS held its 19th Annual Science Day virtually on Nov. 19, and although oral and poster…

NIEHS scientists discussed cancer mutation biomarkers, molecular toxicology, and the latest advances in carcinogen identification at the virtual fall meeting of the Genetics and Environmental Mutagenesis Society (GEMS) of North Carolina,…

Learn more about Beverly’s career path and research interests in this August 2020 Environmental Factor Q&A. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS)NIEHS scientists Brandy Beverly, Ph.D., and Andrew Rooney, Ph.D., coauthored the…

Riley said WRUC trains workers to respond to wildfires, extreme heat, flooding, droughts, and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Riley)Climate-related disasters and worker safety were among the topics…

A major challenge for the biomedical community is to effectively process and integrate an increasing flood of data. For example, scientists often must grapple with large study populations, varied environmental exposure mixtures, and…

Anchang will create computational tools to examine how genes, pathogens, age, ethnicity, and cultural activities affect placental development in Nigerian women during pregnancy. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS) The Chan…

Adding to its list of initiatives to address environmental racism, environmental health disparities (EHD), and issues related to environmental justice (EJ), NIEHS hosted a workshop on Dec. 10 titled “Addressing Racism as a Public Health…

“This was one of the biggest challenges of my career,” Dudek said. “I cannot thank my fellow co-chairs and division coworkers enough for their tremendous support in getting us across the finish line.” (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw /…

“We discovered unique ways that stress hormones influence the activation of human genes,” said Hoffman. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS)Although stress is part of modern life, many people may not know that stress hormones…

“Metabolomics is the end product readout of the systems that power a cell,” said Fessler. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS)The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is made up of 27 Institutes and Centers (ICs), is the…

Rick Woychik, Ph.D., directs NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program. (Image courtesy of NIEHS) In 2021, Sharon Beard was appointed director of the NIEHS Worker Training Program (WTP), bringing decades of valuable experience and…

When Temitope 'Temi' Adedeji, Ph.D., came to NIEHS in October 2019, he brought with him the desire to learn as much as he could so that he could transfer that knowledge to students back home in Nigeria. Five months later, the global…

Richard Gilliam, a 2015 NIEHS postbaccalaureate trainee, will celebrate the official launch of his new children’s book — Diversed In Stem: When We Believe, We Achieve — on April 14. The author aims to teach children from all backgrounds…