Monthly Archives: September 2007

Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D., director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), has appointed Sally Lee as the institute’s new executive officer. NIGMS, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supports research that increases understanding of life processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Continue reading →

More than 150 million people worldwide are infected with filarial parasites — long, thread-like worms that can live for years inside the human body and cause severe, debilitating diseases such as elephantiasis. Mosquitoes spread the larvae of these parasitic nematodes from human to human, placing at risk more than a billion people who live in places in Africa, Asia and Latin America where filarial parasites thrive. Continue reading →

The National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP), an initiative of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has created an educational brochure tailored specifically for African Americans at risk for kidney disease. The brochure — “Kidney Disease: What African Americans Need to Know” — explains the connection between diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney disease, and encourages those at risk to talk to their health care providers about getting tested. Continue reading →

The rare immunodeficiency disorder known as Job’s syndrome is caused by a specific genetic mutation that both overstimulates and understimulates the human immune system, leading to harmful bacterial and fungal infections and the physical features characteristic of the syndrome, according to two independent groups of scientists, one from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the other from the Tokyo Medical and Dental University. Continue reading →

NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., is making a major investment in the future of science with five-year grants totaling more than $105 million to 41 exceptionally innovative investigators, many of whom are in the early stages of their careers. Continue reading →

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today that it will begin implementing President Bush’s Executive Order to explore methods to expand the number of approved pluripotent stem cell lines “without creating a human embryo for research purposes or destroying, discarding, or subjecting to harm a human embryo or fetus.” The Executive Order calls on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt, who in turn is directing NIH, to conduct and support research that takes advantage of emerging potential alternative methods for generating stem cells that are pluripotent, i.e., capable of producing all or almost all of the cell types in the developing body. Continue reading →

Two Institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been honored with the prestigious Governors Award by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for their contribution to HBO’s Addiction Project. “Addiction” is a 14-part documentary television series and multimedia initiative revealing the science of addiction, its treatment, recovery, and its costs to families and society. Continue reading →

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., today announced the expansion of the national consortium that is transforming how clinical and translational research is conducted at academic health centers across the country. Ultimately, this consortium will enable researchers to provide new treatments more efficiently and quickly to patients. Funded through Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs), the consortium adds 12 more academic health centers to the 12 announced last October. When fully implemented in 2012, 60 institutions will be linked together to energize the discipline of clinical and translational science. Continue reading →

Scientists have discovered that adult tendons contain stem cells
that can be isolated, grown in the lab, and then used to generate
tendon-like tissues in mice. The findings point the way toward
improved techniques for repairing human tendons damaged by repetitive
movements, tears or aging. Continue reading →

Researchers have discovered a “lean” gene in animals.
If the gene works the same for people as it does in worms, fruit
flies and mice, the finding could lead to new strategies for
combating obesity. Continue reading →