October 2016

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IN THIS ISSUE:

ABOUT CC NEWS:

Published monthly by the Office of Communications and Media Relations.

News, article ideas, calendar events and photos are welcome. Submissions may be edited.

Clinical Center News

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

Building 10, Room 6-2551

Bethesda, MD 20892

Tel: 301-594-5789

Fax: 301-402-0244

2016 employee survey results show high workplace satisfaction

According to the 2016 NIH Clinical Center Employee Survey (NIH staff only), administered to over 1,000 federal employees, 77 percent of the center's staff reported being satisfied with Clinical Center. The Clinical Center's response ranked higher than the 69 percent national average satisfaction rate amongst U.S. hospital employees and the 68 percent satisfaction rate amongst other U.S. employees surveyed.

Atrium café renovation set for November, new marketplace serving Starbucks to open in 2017

At the end of November, Au Bon Pain in the CC atrium will close and renovations will begin on a café featuring a Starbucks “We Proudly Brew” program. The space, scheduled to re-open in February 2017, will include a full line of Starbucks beverages, similar to the coffee bar in Building 35.

NIH study shows that patients with PIEZO2 mutation have problems with proprioception, or body awareness

Experts working in the CC have found that there may be a ‘sixth sense’ intertwined with hearing, sight, taste, smell and touch that the human body greatly depends on for body awareness throughout daily life. In late September, the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine on their finding that a gene called PIEZO2 controls specific aspects of human touch and proprioception – a “sixth sense” describing the ability to sense the body’s place in space.

Energetic 3-year-old receives gene therapy for inherited disorder of the immune system

With his collection of stuffed animal dogs lined up on his bed, and his favorite fake bugs tucked by his side, 3-year-old pediatric patient Everett Schmitt received gene therapy for X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (XSCID) Sept. 15 in the CC. Schmitt is enrolled in a clinical trial with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for XSCID, referred to by some people as ‘Bubble Boy Disease.” It is caused by an abnormality in a gene that affects the growth and development of immune cells such as white blood cells.