Scientific Director's Preface

“Adaptability is an ancestral distinction of human intelligence, but today’s instant variations in rhythm call for something stronger: elasticity. The byproduct of adaptability and acceleration, elasticity means being able to negotiate change and innovation without letting them interfere excessively with one’s own rhythms and goals. It means being able to embrace progress, understanding how to make it our own.”

Paola Antonelli, quoted in Longhito S, “The Elastic Mind,”
FASEB Journal 2008;22:3753

Several weeks ago, I attended a lecture by Walter Isaacson in which he discussed two of his books—Albert Einstein: His Life and Universe and Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. He highlighted parallels between these two giants and lessons that might be learned from them. He stressed their passions to understand the nature of events and their refusal to be inhibited in their search for knowledge by the dogma of the times. What parallels exist now?

The world is in a state of conflict. The once ever-growing economy, which spurred and supported growth in all spheres of activity including science, is contracting. Castles that were built on “margins” are like the proverbial castles built from a deck of cards. Society mandates the need for stricter oversight, ways in which to measure the consequences of investments that allow one to define tangible outcomes as results of industry (in Latin “industria” means diligence, skill, or a department or branch of a craft, art, business, or manufacture). As I review the 2008 research highlights for the NICHD’s Division of Intramural Research, I also focus on the outcome of the presidential election and wonder about its impact on biomedical science for the next four years and how our science and its impact will be assessed.

Two months ago, I had the privilege to present a talk to the NICHD Advisory Council, highlighting the nature of our intramural research program, its contributions to the field of biological science, and its special relevance to our mission of furthering women and children’s health and reproductive medicine. It underscored the privilege I have enjoyed in serving as the Scientific Director of the Division of Intramural Research of this Institute. As a primary pathway for discovery about human development, health, and an understanding of disease, our research efforts have been organized around the theme of the orchestration of life by molecular messengers. Scientists within the division have made ground-breaking advances such as:

Co-discovery of the phenomenon of RNA splicing
Identification of the role of corticotropin-releasing hormone in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis
Cloning and identification of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes
Development of conjugate vaccines for Hemophilus influenzae type B (HiB), typhoid, shigella, pertussis toxoid, anthrax, and malaria
Eradication of HiB as a cause of bacterial meningitis and its subsequent causation of mental retardation
Discovery of the basic mechanisms of excitatory synaptic transmission
Development of neural tissue culture to study synapse formation
Elucidation of the molecular basis of cell membrane fusion
Co-invention of Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Invention of Laser Capture Microscopy
Pioneering use of fluorescent probes to study the process and kinetics of cell organelle formation and trafficking

These are but a few of the important consequences and outcomes of research by scientists within our Division of Intramural Research. Our scientists also have made a major commitment to training future scientists and educators. There are 283 postdoctoral and 90 predoctoral trainees in our research laboratories. Graduates from our program hold prominent academic positions in universities and research foundations across the country and around the world.

The successes of our recent and past investigative efforts give us optimism for the future. Research scientists within the Division of Intramural Research exemplify the combination of creativity and convergence of fundamental and applied science: neuro-electrophysiology combined with structural biology, cell biology coupled with technology development, genomic technology coupled with developmental and reproductive endocrinology, genetic methodology applied to behavioral science, and physical biology applied to the study of regulation of cell division and differentiation. We are committed to increasing our understanding of developmental and reproductive science so that we can maintain the health and treat the diseases of women and children.

“People like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live. . . . [We] never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.”

Albert Einstein

Owen M. Rennert, M.D.
Scientific Director
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development