Monthly Archives: August 2007

A majority of older Americans are sexually active and view intimacy as an important part of life, despite a high rate of “bothersome” sexual problems, according to a new report in the Aug. 23, 2007, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The findings come from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project, research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The findings shed new light on the intimate social relationships and health of people ages 57 to 85, informing health care providers and patients about sexual norms in the older U.S. population. Continue reading →

Using genetic engineering, researchers have created an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) ? like set of behaviors in mice and reversed them with antidepressants and genetic targeting of a key brain circuit. The study, by National Institutes of Health (NIH) ? funded researchers, suggests new strategies for treating the disorder. Continue reading →

Common Gene Variant May Offer Protection Against Marijuana Dependence. Continue reading →

The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is funding a new $15.5 million, five-year initiative to discover, develop, and clinically validate cancer biomarkers by targeting the carbohydrate (glycan) part of a molecule. Biomarkers are substances sometimes found in the blood, other body fluids, or tissues that measure biological processes, and in addition to genes and proteins, can be complex carbohydrate (sugar) structures that are attached to protein and lipid (fat) molecules. Continue reading →

Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health, announced today that NIH will convene a panel of senior management experts to begin a comprehensive review of the management and leadership of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) to ensure that a series of issues that have been raised over the past few months are fully and independently evaluated and, as necessary, properly addressed. Continue reading →

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced grants expected to total approximately $30 million to establish one, new Center of Excellence in Genomic Science at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and continue its support of the center at Stanford University. Continue reading →

A new evidence report on vitamin D and bone health reviews the current scientific evidence and identifies its strengths and weaknesses. This report will be a valuable resource for an upcoming National Institutes of Health conference September 5-6 that will examine a range of scientific perspectives related to vitamin D and bone health across the lifecycle. Continue reading →

Award-winning epidemiologist and academician Francisco Sy, M.D., Dr.P.H., has been appointed as the new director of Extramural Activities and Scientific Programs at the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Continue reading →

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is pleased to announce a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for interfederation with the U.S. Higher Education’s InCommon Identity Management Federation (InCommon). With this partnership, users will now be able to leverage their existing accounts to gain access to approved NIH online systems and services like training, mentoring, and content resources. Continue reading →

Researchers have identified a protein that plays an important, early role in the increase of protective skin pigmentation after exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The protein, called SOX9, is a transcription factor known to participate in embryo development and to be expressed in many adult tissues including the heart, kidney, and brain. Transcription factors control when and where genes (and hence the proteins encoded by those genes) are expressed. This study, led by investigators in the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, confirms the importance of SOX9 to adult skin cells and is the first to show that a protein in the SOX family can be regulated by UV radiation Continue reading →