Last year, we launched the NIGMS Director’s Early Career Investigator Lecture series. Open to everyone in the scientific community, the lectures are directed at undergraduate students to introduce them to cutting-edge science while inspiring them to pursue biomedical research careers. The series also highlights the achievements of some of NIGMS’ early career grantees. I’m excited to share that the 2017 lecture will be presented by Namandjé Bumpus, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine-division of clinical pharmacology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Namandjé is an NIGMS-funded recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Her lecture, “Drug Metabolism, Pharmacogenetics and the Quest to Personalize HIV Treatment and Prevention,” will take place on the NIH campus on Wednesday, April 5, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT. It will be videocast and archived on the NIH videocasting site. Namandjé will describe her work examining the metabolism and distribution of antiretroviral drugs and their effects on cellular signaling pathways. She hopes that through a clearer understanding of these processes in cells and tissues, we can move toward predicting drug responses in a given person. After her talk, Namandjé will participate in a 30-minute question-and-answer session about her research and career path. I hope you will encourage your students to watch the lecture and send in their questions for Namandjé. They can email them or tweet them using #ecilecture by March 29. They can also check out the inaugural lecture by Blake Wiedenheft, Ph.D., on “Bacteria, Their Viruses, and How They Taught Us to Perform Genome Surgery.”