Have you looked at our oral histories lately? New interviews with scientists, nurses, and administrators are being conducted and posted every month.

One of our newest oral histories is with Dr. Dominic Esposito, director of the Protein Expression Laboratory at NCI. Have you ever wondered how researchers get the raw materials to conduct experiments? In March 2020, Dr. Esposito was approached by NIH researchers who needed a constant supply of COVID-19 spike proteins to study how the virus works and build a vaccine.

“Figuring out how to run a group and to carry out this kind of research from home was a challenge, especially in the early days of the pandemic, when time was a factor and everybody was putting in 16-hour days. It was very difficult for me to be that far away and not…stand there in the lab and look at the data. That was a challenge, but frankly, it turned out to be a great opportunity. It made our group more efficient; we learned a lot of new technologies out of this.”Had enough of the heat? Now that we’re approaching the end of the summer, we’re looking forward to the colder months and snowy landscapes like this one of Building 31, captured by NIH photographer Jerry Hecht. An expert at capturing campus life at its most beautiful and dramatic, Hecht joined NIH as a photographer in 1959. He later worked with the Office of the Director and the National Institute of Mental Health on audiovisual projects like television and film. His images can be found in the Jerry Hecht collection in the Archives of the Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum.

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