With sponsored travel and large gatherings now limited to stop the spread of COVID-19, NIH has been making lots of logistical adjustments. That includes holding the first “virtual” NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) on March 11, 2020. I started things off from Bethesda, Maryland by looking into a video monitor in a large, mostly empty conference room and introducing Jim Allison, the cancer immunotherapy giant and recent Nobelist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. In Houston, Jim walked to the podium in a mostly empty hall (top left), called for his slides, and delivered a roughly 45-minute presentation titled Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Cancer Therapy: Historical Perspective, New Opportunities, and Prospects for Cures. Taking it all in online was a large NIH audience that included next to me another cancer immunotherapy giant, Steve Rosenberg of NIH’s National Cancer Institute (bottom right). At the conclusion of the presentation, NIH staff emailed questions to the podium in Houston, where Jim provided the answers. Still left to be worked out in this virtual format is how to share afterwards in the real-world coffee, refreshments, and stimulating conversation. Credit: NIH
I joined Nobel laureate Jim Allison to take part in a roundtable discussion of cancer immunotherapy with several Members of Congress. The informal discussion took place in the Rayburn Office Building, Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2019. The meeting was requested by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and ACT for NIH, Washington, D.C. Afterwards, we posed for a group photo, showing (from left to right) Jed Manocherian, founder and chairman, ACT for NIH; Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan; Congresswoman DeLauro; Congresswoman Nita Lowey of New York; Jim Allison, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy. Standing next to me on the right is Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher of Texas. Credit: NIH
It was an honor to attend the Nobel Symposium hosted by the Embassy of Sweden in the U.S. on November 13, 2018. The symposium was held at the House of Sweden in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the 2018 American Nobel Laureates. Four of this year’s six Nobel Laureates were in attendance. Here, I’m standing with Peter WT Pisters (middle), president of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; and Jim Allison (right), also with MD Anderson and a co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Dr. Allison played a leading role in developing cancer immunotherapy. Credit: @ppisters
