E-Newsletter

NIH Pain Consortium Holds Annual Symposium

On May 31 and June 1, NIH held the 2018 NIH Pain Consortium Symposium, “From Science to Society: At the Intersection of Chronic Pain Management and the Opioid Crisis.” The event highlighted the latest work by NIH-supported pain researchers via presentations, panel sessions, and a poster session. The symposium addressed the following topics:

• At the Intersection of Pain, Reward & Opioid Tolerance
• The BRAIN Initiative: Harnessing Technology for Pain Research
• Disparities in Clinical Pain Management

NIDCR Director Martha J. Somerman, DDS, PhD, provided closing remarks. Access the symposium webcast.

NIDA, NIDCR, and ADA Hold Meeting about Oral Health Practitioners and the Opioid Crisis

On March 28, Somerman, along with National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow, MD; NIH Principal Deputy Director and former NIDCR Director Lawrence Tabak, DDS, PhD; and representatives of the American Dental Association (ADA), including ADA President Joseph P. Crowley, DDS, met to discuss ways oral health practitioners are addressing the opioid crisis, as well as opportunities for the future.

NIH Launches Initiative to Accelerate Scientific Solutions to Opioid Epidemic

NIH announced on April 4 the launch of the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative, a trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. NIH is nearly doubling funding for research to prevent addiction through enhanced pain management and improve treatments for opioid misuse disorder and addiction.

NIH Launches All of Us Research Program

On May 6, NIH officially launched the All of Us research program, an effort to create a community of one million people who will share their unique health data for research. The launch was kicked off at community events at seven sites across the nation, from Alabama to Washington state. Community leaders, NIH representatives, and NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, discussed how participants’ data will help researchers devise new ways of improving the health of all Americans.

NIH Director Testifies Before Congress on 2019 Budget Request

Collins and several NIH leaders appeared before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies on April 11 to discuss the Fiscal Year 2019 NIH budget request. Collins stated that the 2019 budget will consolidate HHS research functions, optimize available grant dollars to fund research, invest in NIH’s buildings and facilities, and support NIH priority areas including combatting the opioid epidemic, advancing precision medicine, and investing in translational research.

NIH Science of Behavior Change Featured in Special Issue of Journal

A special issue of Behaviour Research and Therapy featured the NIH Common Fund’s Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) Program, with papers describing the SOBC mission and the work of its research teams. The SOBC program seeks to promote mechanisms-focused basic research on the initiation, personalization, and maintenance of behavior change for unhealthy behaviors that contribute to negative health outcomes and common diseases, including oral health problems. Melissa Riddle, PhD, chief of the NIDCR Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Branch, serves as a working group coordinator of the SOBC Program and co-authored one of the special issue papers describing the NIH program.

NIH Completes In-Depth Genomic Analysis of 33 Cancer Types

NIH-funded researchers have completed a detailed genomic analysis, known as the PanCancer Atlas, on a data set of molecular and clinical information from over 10,000 tumors representing 33 types of cancer, including head and neck cancer. The PanCancer Atlas, published as a collection of 27 papers across a suite of Cell journals, summarizes work accomplished over the last decade by The Cancer Genome Atlas – a multi-institution collaboration initiated and supported by NIH. The analysis provides a wealth of information to advance scientists’ understanding of how, where, and why tumors arise in humans, to enable better-informed clinical trials and future treatments.

Director of NIH Center for Scientific Review Retires

Richard Nakamura, PhD, retired in April from the directorship of the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) after a 39-year career at NIH. While a national search for a new director is conducted, Noni Byrnes, PhD, is serving as acting director. Byrnes has been acting deputy director at CSR since January 2018 and director of CSR’s Division of Basic and Integrative Biological Sciences since 2012.

Aiyelawo Named Chief Operating Officer of NIH Clinical Center

U.S. Navy Captain Pius Aiyelawo (retired) was named as chief operating officer (COO) of the NIH Clinical Center on April 2. The role was recently expanded to include management of most clinical as well as administrative areas. He reports directly to Chief Executive Officer James K. Gilman, MD. Aiyelawo holds a bachelor of arts in management science from Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, and received a master of public administration from University of Alaska, Anchorage.

Redfield Appointed CDC Director

Robert Redfield, MD, was sworn in as CDC director on March 26. Redfield has worked in clinical research and clinical care of chronic human viral infections and infectious diseases, especially HIV, for more than 30 years. Prior to his CDC appointment, he cofounded the University of Maryland’s Institute of Human Virology and served as the chief of Infectious Diseases and vice chair of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.