NCCAM appoints CAM research fellows

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has selected the first two fellows for the NCCAM Director's Fellowship in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Research.

"This prestigious fellowship constitutes an important tool through which NCCAM can recruit and train the next generation of CAM researchers. It exemplifies our approach to integrative medicine by fostering CAM research throughout the NIH. We are very grateful for the support of this new concept by our colleagues at the NIH," said Stephen E. Straus, M.D., NCCAM Director.

The primary goal of the fellowship is to prepare new fellows for careers as independent CAM investigators. The fellowship provides full research support for two years of clinical, translational, and/or laboratory research. The fellows were selected from a highly competitive international pool of applicants.

The fellows will join the NIH Intramural Research Program and conduct research on CAM topics in the laboratories of senior scientists of other Institutes and Centers across the NIH. Under the mentor's guidance, the fellow will serve as a "bridge" between the mentor's laboratory, where the work will be performed, and NCCAM.

"The NCCAM Director's Fellowship is an innovative new component in NIH's longstanding commitment to, and responsibility for, training the next generation of biomedical researchers," said Michael M. Gottesman, M.D., deputy director for intramural research at the NIH.

The first two NCCAM director's fellows are:

Patrick P. McCue, who received his Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Massachusetts in 2004. He is currently studying the molecular effect of space radiation on the biology of yeast at NASA Ames Research Center in California. James Phang, M.D., of the National Cancer Institute, will mentor McCue while he studies the effects of chemical compounds from botanical extracts on mechanisms of cancer cell death.

Marni N. Silverman, who received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Emory University in 2005. She will be working with Esther Sternberg, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health. Silverman will study glucocorticoid resistance, which contributes to individual variability in responses to stress. Her research will help shed light on the influence of CAM therapies on the responses of the brain and body to stress.

— Source: NCCAM (nccam.nih.gov)