Message from the Scientific Director
Our 2022 annual report of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Division of Intramural Research (DIR) is now available at https://annualreport.nichd.nih.gov.
We invite you to look through the report, to review our medical and scientific discoveries of the past year, to see what work a colleague may currently be engaged in, or to identify a laboratory where you may wish to collaborate or refer a student. For potential postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and clinical fellows, the report is fully searchable. It offers an introduction to the array of research endeavors in NICHD’s DIR.
NICHD’s intramural community comprises a broad array of basic, translational, and clinical researchers. We use a range of model systems in the areas of developmental biology, molecular and cellular biology, neurosciences, structural biology, imaging, and biophysics. Investigators working with a number of animal models, from fruit flies to rats and mice, are supported by a wide array of core services including bioinformatics, imaging, molecular genomics, and a large zebrafish facility. Each investigator participates in at least one, and typically more, affinity groups. These affinity groups are team-based and future-oriented—to build on thematic interests while responding to rapidly shifting scientific priorities as new knowledge is uncovered.
I encourage you to read through the selection of our clinical trials and to consider how we may collaborate through the NIH U01 grant mechanism at the NIH Clinical Research Center. This program could lead to our next great success by helping us combine expertise and patient populations, while leveraging NIH infrastructure to address topics ranging from rare disorders to the most common problems affecting human health. You can learn more about the U01 opportunities at https://ocr.od.nih.gov/new_u01/new_u01.html.
The DIR researchers whose names appear in this publication are committed to training the next generation of scientists and physician-scientists; they include tenure-track investigators, who have recently joined us, and accomplished investigators, who continue to forge new scientific paths. Visit the report on the web to learn about their work in 2022.
Our drive and purpose, on behalf of the American public and the international community, is to strive to uncover the fundamental principles that underpin reproduction and development, and to apply these findings to improve human reproductive health, healthy growth, and maturation of children and adolescents. You can reach out to me with your ideas and proposals for collaborative initiatives at mcbainc@mail.nih.gov.
Sincerely yours,
Chris J. McBain, PhD
Scientific Director, NICHD, NIH
