 It's a pleasure to come to you this afternoon to give you an update of what has happened over the last two years and particularly what's happened over the last three months with the Genome Unlocking Life's Code exhibition. So some of you have heard this before, but I think it's important for both the audience here and the audience that may be watching this on the web, that this relationship that we have created with the Smithsonian Institution and particularly with the National Museum of Natural History really came out of a conversation that happened now a little over two years ago between Dr. Green and Dr. Clough, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, where it was recognized that we have these two major federal agencies just 10 miles apart down the red line from each other that really were not working together closely with regards to science education and education of the public. And 2013 was an important year for the field of genomics with the 10th anniversary of the completion of the Human Genome Project and the 60th anniversary of the publication of the Watson and Critt article. So 2013 made sense to do something. So in June of 2011, we met at the Smithsonian Institution at the castle with Dr. Clough to talk about how we can really establish and build relationships between the National Human Genome Research Institute and the Smithsonian Institution. And out of that came the decision to establish the exhibition. And very quickly, the two organizations came together to collaborate, to really think about how we think about what is important for the public to know. Terry presented the strategic plan. And if you go back to the strategic plan, there's one of the areas that we identify of the importance of enhancing the public's genomic literacy. And that this relationship with the Smithsonian Institution was an opportunity to really to begin to do that. So researchers, staff from the Genome Institute, researchers and staff at the Smithsonian Institution came together very quickly in the fall of 2011 to begin to establish and develop the main messages, the focus, the topic areas to include in the exhibition that you will visit tomorrow. On June 13th, we had the press review, as Dr. Green stated, and the exhibition opened to the public on June 14th of this year. And since then, there has been a lot of press, both from scientific reporters as well as from exhibition museum critics that have provided an opportunity to provide a perspective with regards to the exhibition. And it has also provided an opportunity to be a vehicle to disseminate information to the public. The most recent review just came two weeks ago, and I never thought I would be focused on looking for reviews from New York Times review critic. But I became very much focused on that and was very pleased that at Rothstein, the critic at large for the New York Times was very pleased with the exhibition. And I encourage you to read the review if you have not. That was published on August 28th in the New York Times. So let me just take a minute, again, for the audience here, but also the audience on the web, to let you know that we now are providing various opportunities for the public who are not at the exhibition to also to be exposed to the content in the exhibition. And this 4,400 square foot exhibition provides a broad range of topic areas and content of importance for the public. But also included with the exhibition is a area that is really an interactive area that's called the genome zone. And one of the most exciting things about this exhibition is the number of NIH scientists and trainees that are now volunteering and participating in this genome zone to help to engage with the public with regards to activities. Weekly, there are activities going on where NIH scientists, not just genome institute scientists, but NIH scientists and trainees are going down to the museum and engaging with the public. We have postdocs and graduate students that are participating in a program called Genome Geeks, and we have research scientists in our intramural program and staff scientists in our extramural program that are participating in a program that's called Scientists Is In. And this is an important opportunity for these scientists here at NIH to actively engage with the public in a very personal way to provide them information and excite them about the work of the institute. So a second component of the program is a website. There's a website that was established just for this exhibition by the Smithsonian Institution and NHGRI. And the website is unlockinglifescode.org. And this is a collaborative website that's focused on providing educational tools as well as information about the exhibition. And within that website, we provide information that's actually timely information about things that are changing in the news. Within the exhibition, there's a ticker, and that ticker is updated every month. And now on the website, when the ticker is updated, we're now providing these little short stories that link out to provide more information. An example of one is around the HeLa cells and the decision with the Lax family that occurred over the summer. There are a variety of educational resources on the website, including timeline and information for students and teachers, as well as resources and images that can be used by teachers in their classrooms. So one of the things that we provided, because we know not everyone is going to be able to visit the exhibition here in Washington, D.C., or as it travels across the country, is that there is a virtual tour that will be going live on the website as of this Wednesday, which will provide an opportunity for you to take a tour and really see all of the different sections of the exhibition, and to really explore the exhibition without actually attending the museum. The website has been developed in a way so it can be used on iPads and on iPhones, on various types of media, so that it's not just your computer, your desktop computer, your laptop, but that you can actually use your various smartphones and iPhones and iPads. Another area of the programming that I want to highlight is the collaboration we've done with the Smithsonian Associates. With the Smithsonian Associates, which is a part of the Smithsonian Institution, we've partnered with them to develop nine programs for the public, and these are really targeted and marketed based on both the Smithsonian Associates' past experiences of what the public is interested in, but as a way to make it engaging and entertaining, but provide scientific, highly credible quality information to the public on issues of importance to them and to expand their knowledge and interests with the field of genomics. And the first one of those shows will occur this Thursday. It's on ancestry testing, and we will have the opportunity for Gwen Eiffel from Washington Week and Lonnie Bunch, who's the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, to present information, both genealogical information as well as genomic information about their own families. And then after they have this conversation about the background information, they will go off the stage. Dr. Aravinda Chakravarti from Johns Hopkins, Joanna Mountain from 23andMe, and Charmaine Royle will be part of a conversation about what we can and can't tell today from ancestry testing and what are some of the limitations, what are some of the challenges, what are some of the things that we're able to explore and understand. So really seeking to both bring the engagement about things that we've identified that the public is most interested in, ancestry testing, but also provide them information that will be helpful as they may make decisions whether they want to participate in such genetic testing in their own future. And this program sold out in two days. It's going to be at the Bayard Auditorium that hosts 500 individuals and it's clearly one that was receptive that there was a lot of interest here in the Washington, DC area. And as we held focus groups early on in the development of the exhibition, one of the areas that was identified that the public was really interested in was ancestry and what genomics provided with regards to understanding their ancestry. So there's another program that will also occur on September 14th on that a number of the members of the individuals here in this room are going to participate in. It's a scholarly meeting on ancestry issues and exploring from different disciplines to African diaspora and bringing both culture, genomics and history together and exploring these issues. Sarah Tishkoff will be presenting, various individuals will be presenting, Dr. Bussamante will be participating in that to explore a variety of issues with regards to how we think about these issues from a scholarly perspective and bringing knowledge to other disciplines about the work that's going on in the field of genomics. So there's a number of things that are happening as part of this exhibition initiative. The website, the programming, but then really the jewel is the exhibition itself. And the exhibition itself could not have happened without a number of individuals. And I'm just referring you to a web link on the Unlocking Life's Code website where we've identified the members of our advisory board as well as the individuals across both the National Museum of Natural History and the Genome Institute that participated in this process. And many people at this table right here, this council table, participated in various roles from being interviewed, from participating as a consultant and providing expert advice as we were developing the content. And it's only because of the team of individuals that have been involved, this project has really become, I think, the exciting jewel that it has developed into. So again, the strategic plan said one of our missions is to help to enhance the genomic literacy of the public. And as Eric stated, more than a million people have gone through this exhibition in just three months. The exhibition will be at the Smithsonian Museum until September of 2014. And then it will go to San Diego, to the Fleet Museum, and it will go across the country and then throughout North America. And I want to end making a statement that I made back in the fall of 2011 when we presented at a town hall meeting for the Institute. And I made a comment about the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. And I made the statement that it was going to take an Institute to create an exhibit. And that was so true. And there were so many people involved and participated in this that I can't acknowledge all the people involved, either on this council or that are within the Institute. But there are two people that I feel it's important for me to identify and to recognize because I'm really just kind of the spokesperson up here, but there's two other individuals that have played such an important role that I always mention their names. One is Dr. Larry Brody, the branch chief in genome technology in our intramural program, played a major role and made a major commitment to the quality of the content of the exhibition, and Dr. Carla Easter, who's the deputy chief of the Education Community and Environment Branch. But it was really a team of all the individuals here at the Institute that made it happen. So the ride is just beginning. This will continue for the next four years. But if you think about the number of people we've already reached in the public of over a million people engaging and experiencing the exhibition and the numbers that are already being reached through the website, the impact of this exhibition in enhancing the genomic literacy of the public, I think we're off to a great start. So with that, I'll take any questions. Before we take questions, Vince completely misspoke in one of the things he said near the very end. He said he's just a spokesman of this. This is a ridiculous understatement. Maybe the metaphor, he's the grand conductor, but believe me, none of this would have happened if Vince didn't show spectacular leadership of this very complicated and multifaceted endeavor for the last two-plus years. By the way, he also has three other jobs at the Institute. This was all done in his spare time, but I think it probably consumed at least 45 hours a week for the last year. So a spokesperson is not accurate. Grand conductor might be better. So questions are comments. And I will also say that for council members, it also wouldn't have been possible without a remarkable group of individuals we've got to be friends with down at the National Museum of Natural History. They were equally receptive partners. It's great. And you, council members, when we're there tomorrow, I've just gotten confirmation that two of the senior leaders, including the director of the museum, will be there in the exhibition. But introduce you to them, and you'll see these terrific leadership, and they also have great staff. I don't know if some of them might be there as well who are involved. So questions or comments for Vince? Yeah. Thanks, Vince, for a great presentation and project. I'm just wondering if you have a sense of how many people have seen the exhibition? So it's over a million people. So it opened on June 14. Now we hit the high season for the museum, okay? The Natural History Museum sees over seven million individuals annually. And it opened in June, and based on the estimates from the museum, over a million people have been through the exhibition. And one of the things that we're learning, actually, is currently going on is evaluation. And part of that is they watch people within the exhibition and see how long they stay at different stations, how long they stay within the hall, and then they have surveys that they will provide. So we'll have data to be able to share in the future. But this exhibition has been identified by the staff at the museum as one where people stay much longer than many other parts of the museum itself. And it's an opportunity really to kind of engage in a different kind of way. And I guess one of the real joys for me has been going and observing and just watching people in the exhibition hall, watching parents interact with their children, watching young people interact with some of the interactives, and watching just individuals how they are thinking and exploring and acting with the various components of the exhibition. So I think it really has done more than just providing information. It has provided an opportunity for people to really engage into the topic area. The last comment I would make related to that is we had a concern early on whether we were going to be able to really integrate the societal issues into the exhibition. And it's very clear we were successful with that, that issues of importance, the challenges of the field of genomics, the ethical questions have been integrated in a way that clearly comes up in some of the reporting that's occurred since then. But as you see people interact within the exhibition hall. Vince, I really like it. But I also like this idea of the ancillary programming. So is that also going to be available? Are you going to videotape that and that be available? Yes. So before and is that transferable to the other sites as well? Can they follow up on that? Or is that kind of protected underneath the Smithsonian? No, no. Yes. All of the resources and the things that are developed will be videotaped and go up on the web. There is a series of six talks that will occur starting in January that are going to be like TED-like talks that are going to be short scientific talks that will be part of the web. The materials actually on the 14th are going to be taped and appropriately edited and go up on the web. And our hope is as this travels around the country that we will have an opportunity to really engage and partner with those local communities. Our plan is actually to have some demonstration projects that we will do in various sites to support programming, but to provide resources, to provide scientists, to provide the experience here so those unique situations in those communities can be really customized for the needs of that specific geographic area. One thing that neither of us nor I talked about now that I think about it is in addition to everything you just heard about the exhibition and associated programming, part of the reason why the Smithsonian was very enthusiastic and why this partnership has taken off in many ways is because the Smithsonian as a scientific institution has gotten very interested in genomics. And so on a whole separate thread of meetings that I have been involved in, and I have taken some of my staff from my intramural program, they are developing their own, they are basically infusing genomics into a lot of their comparative biology studies and thinking about they are doing a lot of collections, especially now of frozen materials and things that will include eventually sequencing and developing their own infrastructure for that. And so we have become really collaborators or certainly consultants and have looked at ways of enhancing that scientific interaction, even in discussions about maybe possible joint postdoctoral fellowship, they spend some time up with us and maybe some time down there at the Smithsonian, again, using that 10-mile difference and where we are from each other, has some scientific opportunities as well. Bob, and then there was some. Vance, have you had any pushback from people who are perhaps not that enamored of using genomics as an ancestry tool or are not that interested in the use of genomics for a tool to study things like evolution? So no, we have not had that direct kind of response. This event that will occur on the 14th will not all be pro-use of genomics for ancestry and particularly the scholarly meeting, I think will be an engaging, exciting day where some people are saying this is really not how you understand someone's identity in their background. A number of our grantees are speaking and are participating in that day, as well as historians and individuals who are not focused on using genomic information to understand history. To compliment you on a number of great things, well done. One of the things I liked was the scientist in session in genome geek that seems to make it more active and far less passive as an exhibit. Can you take that on the road some way as it moves around? So there's clearly this model. What we're going to be doing is putting together really kind of what happened over this year in a way as a toolkit that we can share with other communities related to the exhibition itself. And clearly the ability to take the red line for a scientist to go down to the museum or postdoc is easy for us and it provides this opportunity for NIH scientists. But when it travels, we hope to work with academic institutions within that geographic area to do something similar so that scientists and trainees within the various academic institutions can participate with their science center or their museum with regards to the program. There's a reason. You mentioned the first place it's going to go, a year from September or whenever it's going to be San Diego. There's a longer list of where it's going after, not all of that's public yet. But we very much wanted it to at least touch some of the major footprints where we have significant genomics presence and many of you around this table even have gotten letters from me early on trying to get you to be interacting with your local museum. I mean, there are some genome geeks in San Diego. I'm expecting our San Diego colleagues here will find other geeks and trainees. And so I think that part of it can be replicated and for some of the cities that it's going to go to, there should be plenty of individuals. That's going to St. Louis. Am I allowed to say that? I don't know if I'm allowed to say that. But it is going to St. Louis. Another place I know Rick is already, I'm sure working and I mean they already have a relationship with the local science museum and other places where we have big genomics footprints. We'd love to see that replicated and we can help facilitate that by telling them what we did. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Vince. We're going to take a break now because the cafeteria upstairs closes a little after three. So can we be back by 3.10? We still have more work to do. All right. Thank you.