Abstract:John Thomas Watson is a mechanical engineer, physiologist, and administrator whose career has centered on the research, development, and validation of biomedical technologies for assisting the ailing heart. His papers focus on the activities of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)'s Devices and Technology Branch -- originally known as the Artificial Heart Program -- and Watson's professional career as administrator of that branch. Reports, administrative records, requests for proposals, contract applications and reviews, conference files, videos, manuscript drafts, reprints, and three-dimensional medical devices document the mechanical cardiac assist device research conducted under the auspices of the NHLBI from 1964 to 2003.

Abstract:Marshall W. Nirenberg is best known for his work on deciphering the genetic code by discovering the unique code words for the twenty major amino acids that make-up DNA, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1968. This collection of correspondence, laboratory administrative and research materials, and publications documents Nirenberg's career as a researcher in biochemical genetics at the National Institutes of Health.

Abstract:Correspondence, reports, research data, meeting agendas and minutes, and protocols documenting Dr. W. French Anderson's pioneering application of gene therapy in a human subject.

Abstract:Reports, documents, correspondence, memoranda, and printed matter. A sizable number of the items are copies. In 1972 President Richard Nixon called for an "intensive study" and requested a plan for developing a "safe, fast, and efficient nationwide blood collection and distribution system."