Annual NIH Research Festival Scheduled, Sept. 14–16

The 2016 NIH Research Festival: A Celebration of Intramural Science will be held Sept. 14–16 in and around the Clinical Center. Now in its 30th year, the annual showcase of NIH intramural research includes loads of talks, poster presentations and activities—both real and of the virtual type.

This year, NIH director Dr. Francis Collins will be a scientific speaker, presenting his work on diabetes during the opening plenary “Super enhancers in cell identity and disease” on Wednesday, Sept. 14. Come hear Collins speak about his own breakthrough research. Plenary sessions begin each day at 10 a.m. These also include “New insights through clinical imaging” on Sept. 15 and “Cell-based immune therapies” on Sept. 16.

Festival afternoons hold concurrent symposia, poster sessions and exhibits. Symposia are intended to draw a broad audience and include topics such as bench-to-bedside “home runs,” microbiota, inflammation and chronic disease, precision medicine, computational biology and the long-term effects of early developmental exposure. 

Poster sessions cover the diversity of NIH research and include the ever-popular IC director and scientific director poster presentations and cooking contest.

The NIH Library will host virtual reality and other technology demonstrations. Ever feel like you’ve been grabbing at nothing your entire life? Well, why not don a pair of virtual reality goggles so you can grab at nothing yet really feel like you are accomplishing something.  

Also new this year to the festival, the National Library of Medicine will host morning tours of its collections. Come see rare, centuries-old medical books, a Nobel Prize medal and more.

Festival staples are back, too: the R&W “Taste of Bethesda” lunch, the vendor tent show, the NIH Green Labs Fair and exhibits on intramural resources.  

Also featured for a second year is the NIH Future Research Leaders Conference sponsored by the chief officer for scientific workforce diversity. The conference provides early stage investigators from the extramural community and from diverse backgrounds with an opportunity to learn about the intramural research program and meet NIH PIs and scientific leadership.

Find the full festival agenda at http://researchfestival.nih.gov, easily navigable on mobile devices.