NIH Record - National Institutes of Health

Germain, Vosshall Set for Two WALS, Two Kinds of ‘Bugs’

Dr. Ron Germain
Dr. Ron Germain

The Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series will feature two high-profile lectures in October.  

First up is Dr. Ron Germain, who will deliver the annual William E. Paul Lecture on Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. ET. This talk honors the legacy of Paul, a leader of the NIH community whose career was without parallel in the field of immunology. He died in 2015.

Germain is chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immune System Biology as well as its lymphocyte biology section. He will speak about “Gaining New Insights into ‘Fundamental Immunology’ Using Imaging and Computation.”  

An internationally recognized immunologist and member of both the National Academy of Sciences and of Medicine, Germain is known for his innovative in-vivo imaging, analysis and modeling of immune cell dynamics.

On Oct. 26, Dr. Leslie Vosshall will deliver an NIH Director’s Lecture titled “Bitten: Why Are Some People More Attractive to Mosquitoes Than Others?” 

Dr. Leslie Vosshall
Dr. Leslie Vosshall

Vosshall, the Robin Chemers Neustein professor and head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller University, became HHMI vice president and chief scientific officer in 2022.

She seeks to understand how environmental cues and internal physiology work together to guide complex animal behaviors. She and her team study this problem in mosquitoes and humans, applying approaches in neurobiology, behavior, genetics and genomics. She uses CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing tools to advance understanding of how the mosquitoes that spread dengue and yellow fever integrate sensory cues to hunt their human hosts.

Both lectures will be held in Lipsett Amphitheater, Bldg. 10, and viewable online live via NIH videocast.

To attend in person, contact WALSoffice@od.nih.gov so that the number of attendees can be monitored for Covid-19 safety reasons.

More information about WALS is posted at https://oir.nih.gov/wals.

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Editor: Dana Talesnik
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Associate Editor: Patrick Smith
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Staff Writer: Amber Snyder
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