Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: National Institutes of Health

  • The origins of NIH medical research grants

    Edward Tabor Bethesda, MD, United States   The main administration building at the “National Institute of Health,” photographed sometime between 1940–1947, before the name was changed to “National Institutes of Health.” The original name can be seen under the cornice. From the “Images from the History of Medicine” collection at the National Library of Medicine,…

  • Gain of function

    Jayant Radhakrishnan Darien, Illinois, United States   “It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge.” – Enrico Fermi (1901–1954)   SARS-CoV-2 virus anatomy with proteins labeled. Created by Maya Peters Kostman for the Innovative Genomics Institute. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. “Gain of Function” (GoF) burst into…

  • Baruch Blumberg who discovered the hepatitis B virus

    Baruch Samuel Blumberg, like Barack Obama, was called Barry by his friends. In 1976 he received the Nobel Prize for saving millions of lives by discovering the cause of hepatitis B, a plague that had afflicted mankind since time immemorial. Born in Brooklyn in 1925, he came from a family that had emigrated to the…

  • A Physician-Scientist’s odyssey at the dawn of AIDS

    Russell Tomar Chicago, Illinois & Madison, Wisconsin, United States   I had just returned from a sabbatical leave at the National Institutes of Health in April 1981 to my position in Pathology, Medicine, and Microbiology at the State University of New York in Syracuse when each of two Infectious Disease specialists asked me to consult…

  • Rosalyn Yalow: opinions and actions

    Maja Nowakowski Brooklyn, New York, United States   “Peer-review process cannot possibly support truly original research because, by definition, an original thinker has no peers.” Anyone who had even a brief conversation with Rosalyn Yalow will recognize her profound insight and bold judgment. These were not idle words: Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, the second woman ever…

  • GI Joe: The life and career of Dr. Joseph B. Kirsner

    James L. FranklinChicago, IL On September 21, 2009, Dr. Joseph B. Kirsner, University of Chicago Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine, will celebrate his 100th birthday. In his centennial year, the American Gastroenterological Association Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition honored Dr. Kirsner with a celebratory dinner on May 29, 2009 as a part…