Annual Event Provides Showcase for IRP Postbaccalaureate Fellows
As informative as undergraduate science courses can be, there’s no better way to learn the ins and outs of biology than to scrutinize and manipulate it in the lab every day. That’s why so many science enthusiasts flock to NIH after college to participate in the IRP Postbaccalaureate IRTA Program, which allows newly minted grads to spend a year or two working full-time in a lab at NIH. And rather than demonstrating the knowledge they’ve gained on a test, IRP postbacs get to present their research at NIH’s Postbac Poster Day each year, an environment akin to the poster sessions at scientific conferences many postbacs will be attending as they continue their scientific careers.
This year, more than 900 IRP postbacs showed off their research at the event, and unlike prior years, all their presentations were done during one absolutely jam-packed day rather than being spread over two days. Read on to learn about how five of them have taken advantage of the opportunity to work in IRP labs over the past year.
Brain Research Helps Understand and Treat Childhood Anxiety
It’s perfectly normal for young children to throw tantrums or be nervous on their first day of school, and for adolescents to be anxious about what their peers think of them. However, for some children and teens, negative emotions can escalate to unhealthy levels, resulting in significant distress and impairing their quality of life.
IRP senior investigator Daniel Pine, M.D., is on a mission to understand how that happens and figure out ways to help those kids. In honor of Mental Health Month, we talked with Dr. Pine about how his research is revolutionizing the field of pediatric psychiatry and paving the way for new, non-pharmaceutical treatments.
IRP Study Reveals Influence of Calorie Intake and Reproductive Cycle on Sleep
Doctors have long emphasized the importance of maintaining a healthy body weight and getting enough sleep, but in our time-limited lives, we often have to choose between spending time exercising, preparing healthy meals, and getting sufficient shuteye. And the number of hours in the day may not be the only thing that pits weight loss against sleep. A recent IRP study suggests that young women who are not obese get poorer sleep when they change their diets in order to lose weight.
Vibrant Images Push Forward Environmental Health Research
Scientists and artists obviously don’t spend their days doing the same thing, but that doesn’t mean the former can’t sometimes inadvertently be the latter. Take for example the 14 IRP research fellows who submitted images to the most recent edition of the Fellows Scientific Image Competition at NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). The competition, held every few years, shows that biomedical science can not only save lives, but also look good doing it.
“We are excited to showcase the work of our trainees using visual media, which reminds us there is art in science and showcases the important research we’re all engaged in at NIEHS,” says NIEHS Scientific Director Darryl Zeldin, M.D., who initiated the competition.
Study Identifies Drugs That Exploit the Disease’s Weak Spots
The best way to destroy a cancer cell is to target its weak points, but that’s obviously easier said than done, especially when you want to kill those diseased cells while sparing healthy ones. That’s where robots come in, allowing scientists to quickly evaluate the effects of thousands of drugs on cancer to see what works and what doesn’t. IRP researchers recently used that approach to identify potential treatments for a rare skin cancer, including a strategy that appears to be particularly good at hitting the disease where it’s most vulnerable.
New IRP Study Identifies Vulnerable and Resilient Brain Cells
Even with our thick skulls to protect our fragile brains, a hard enough blow to the head will still send our neurons into a tizzy. However, not all neurons are affected in the same way by a ‘traumatic brain injury,’ or TBI for short. By developing a way to see which neurons turn on a distress signal after a mild TBI, IRP researchers recently identified differences between neurons that die afterwards and those that are shaken up by the injury but manage to recover over time.
IRP’s Stephen Chanock Elected to National Academy of Medicine
IRP senior investigator Stephen J. Chanock, M.D., grew up on the NIH campus, spending many weekends hanging around his father’s lab. Robert M. Chanock, M.D., worked at NIH for 50 years, during which he identified the human respiratory syncytial virus and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) for his discoveries. Now, following in his dad’s footsteps, the younger Dr. Chanock has been elected to the NAM for his contributions to our understanding of how inherited genetic variation and environmental factors contribute to the risk of developing cancer.
IRP Research Could Lead to Light-Activated Treatments for Numerous Diseases
Many helpful contraptions we use every day would be problematic if we couldn’t turn them off when we didn't need them. After all, you wouldn’t want to leave your oven on when you’re out of town, and most people wouldn’t sleep well with their bedside lamp on all night. Many medical treatments would benefit from the same flexibility, but creating such treatments is no easy task. IRP researchers recently took a significant step forward in this area by creating an experimental treatment for an irritating skin condition that can be activated and inactivated using different colors of light.
IRP’s Clifton Barry Seeks Novel Therapies for an Ancient Foe
March 24 is World Tuberculosis Day, a day to remember that a preventable and curable disease still kills more than a million people each year. Despite every effort to eradicate it, the disease-causing bug, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, keeps coming back stronger and more ready for a fight. As varieties of the bacteria grow more and more resistant to treatment, an evolutionary war is raging between the bacterium and researchers like IRP senior investigator Clifton Barry, Ph.D., who has been seeking solutions for the past 33 years.
IRP’s Paul Hwang Discovers How Muscle Cells Gear Up for Training
As the weather warms up in March, which is National Athletic Training Month, many of us come out of hibernation and finally fulfill that new year’s resolution to start exercising. Deep down in our cells, our mitochondria, the tiny power stations that turn oxygen into energy, start getting a workout, too.
IRP senior investigator Paul Hwang, M.D., Ph.D., studies how mitochondria and cellular energy production affect human health and disease, with a particular focus on cardiovascular health and cancer. However, March’s many new fitness enthusiasts might be most interested in a recent finding from his laboratory that seems to explain how muscles build endurance as we train them through exercise. His team’s insights also explain why muscles revert back to couch potato mode so quickly when we stop regular exercise.
This page was last updated on Friday, January 14, 2022
