NLM Musings from the Mezzanine
Innovations in Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
Richard Scheuermann, PhD, went from facing a high school counselor’s skepticism about attending MIT to becoming NLM’s premier Scientific Director. Today, his research focuses on using AI to find patterns in information about the millions of cells that make up our bodies to better understand how they work and keep us healthy.
Free-text clinical notes capture important details about a patient’s medical history, including critical timing information about symptoms, treatments, and recovery. But finding and structuring this information can be difficult. Dr. Jeremy Weiss and his research team are looking to solve this problem with the help of AI.
NLM recently brought together 25 researchers from across Africa to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, for a hands-on workshop focused on curating high-quality genomic data for submission to repositories, enhancing research collaboration, and supporting public health efforts.
Join us in welcoming Dr. Kin Wah Fung as the new Director of the NLM Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications! His clinical background and expertise in health data standards inform his two principal directions for LHNCBC: moving from research to translation and toward a clinical data emphasis.
Researchers from NLM and the University of Maryland Hall Lab, including Xiaofang Jiang, PhD, a Principal Investigator in the NLM Intramural Research Program (IRP), identified a key enzyme in the human gut microbiome, called bilirubin reductase, and investigated its role in the bilirubin-to-urobilinogen reduction process.
Meet the NLM User Services and Collection Division! This significant reorganization of our library operations unifies our collections, focuses on diverse user needs, adapts to technological advancements, and enhances operational efficiencies. Read more about how this change helps NLM provide accessible biomedical information to improve health.
When she was young, Dr. Przytycka read a book on Marie Skłodowska-Curie and dreamed of becoming a scientist ever since. The story of this famous Polish-born scientist showed not only how exciting scientific discoveries are, but also that a woman can be a scientist. Now see what she does for our IRP!
NLM is excited to announce that long-time leader and innovator, Stephen Sherry, PhD, is now our Acting Director. His tenure follows that of Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, who retired from federal service on September 30 after seven years of service as our director. Join us as we welcome him to NLM!
Every year, NLM’s IRP hosts its Data Science and Informatics Scholars Program, which is open to undergraduate students from diverse and underrepresented groups who are pursuing biomedical informatics training and research opportunities in computer science and related fields. Meet six of this year’s interns and learn about the innovative research they are doing in the NLM IRP!
Meet Dr. Michael Chiang! After he planned for a career as an engineer, he found that his interest in machines could be applied to medicine and help treat people with disease. So he switched his focus (if you will!) to vision science before joining NIH as Director of NEI in November 2020.