Monthly Archives: December 1969

Rapamycin, an FDA-approved drug normally used to help prevent the body from rejecting organ and bone marrow transplants and also used to coat cardiac stents, was highly effective in preventing the development of tobacco-related lung tumors in mice. In a study published in the April 1, 2007 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, found that mice that were administered rapamycin one week after exposure to a very common tobacco-specific carcinogen showed a 90 percent decrease in the number of tumors, a 74 percent decrease in tumor size, and fewer abnormalities within their cancer cells.
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Researchers report that a variation in a portion of DNA strongly predicts prostate cancer risk and that this common variation may be responsible for up to 20 percent of prostate cancer cases in white men in the United States. The research was conducted by investigators from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their partners in the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility (CGEMS) initiative.
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Substance abuse treatment services for offenders are not widely available in all phases of the correctional system, according to the first set of findings from a national survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Scientists supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, have for the first time identified genes that might increase a person’s ability to abstain from smoking. The breakthrough research was conducted by Dr. George Uhl at NIDA’s Intramural Research Program and a team led by Dr. Jed Rose at the Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research at Duke University Medical Center.
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The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced it is awarding $23 million per year for seven years to establish six Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance.
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Patients taking medications to treat bipolar disorder (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformation/bipolarmenu.cfm) are more likely to get well faster and stay well if they receive intensive psychotherapy, according to results from the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD), funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
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Worries about the potential health risks of assisted reproduction technologies may be partly eased by a new study in mice that found the technologies had no detectable effects on the genetic code. Continue reading →

By giving mice the gene that allows people to see red hues, scientists have created rodents that can see a wider range of colors. Continue reading →

Researchers believe they’ve discovered how a rare genetic defect causes premature aging. The process they uncovered may also play a role in the normal aging process. Continue reading →

For depressed people with bipolar disorder who are taking a mood stabilizer, adding an antidepressant medication is no more effective than a placebo (sugar pill), according to results published online on March 28, 2007 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results are part of the large-scale, multi-site Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD), a $26.8 million clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
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