IRP Study Could Lead to New Treatments for an Increasingly Prevalent Liver Ailment
Experienced bakers know certain ingredients are impossible to work with when they’re not supple enough — just try making cookies with ice-cold butter or rock-hard brown sugar. The same could be said of the liver, which struggles to do its job when high levels of fat accumulate in it and trigger a process that binds the liver up in an inflexible mesh. Recent IRP research has identified a key set of biochemical events responsible for that ailment, pointing the way towards a possible method of treating an increasingly prevalent cause of liver disease.
“To focus on an experiment and to shut out everything else is one of the great pleasures,” said NIH distinguished investigator Dr. Gary Felsenfeld in his 2020 oral history.
During his more than 60 years at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), Felsenfeld’s keen focus and enthusiasm for science never flagged. His long career was marked by monumental, lasting breakthroughs that transformed the field of molecular biology, particularly in relation to chromatin — the complex mixture of DNA and proteins that form chromosomes inside the nucleus of a cell.
NIH AI Symposium Highlights Potential of New Computational Tools
The human brain is often compared to a computer. Although scientists and philosophers have long debated the appropriateness of that analogy, there’s no doubt that if our brains are computers, evolution takes its sweet time between software updates. Compare that to the rapid advancement of modern computers and it’s clear why many researchers are turning to software to assist the biological computer nature placed in their own heads.
On May 17, NIH celebrated this remarkable partnership between humans and machines with its first-ever Artificial Intelligence Symposium, a day-long event that brought together researchers from all around the IRP to share the ways their work is taking advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, which aims to create computers that can learn the way we do. Anyone in attendance surely came away in awe of the possibilities for how such technologies could accelerate our investigation into the mysteries of biology and the development of new medical treatments. For those who missed it, read on for a rundown of a few of the many research projects IRP researchers presented at the event.
The word ‘stroke,’ attributed to the idea of ‘a stroke of God’s hand,’ was first used in 1599 to describe the sudden seizure, paralysis, and brain damage that was previously called ‘apoplexy.’ It was a fitting analogy. Strokes, which affect nearly 800,000 Americans every year, hit suddenly and terrifyingly, with devastating consequences. Speed is critical to good treatment outcomes, but until recently very little could be done.
May is Stroke Awareness Month, a time to draw attention to the risks and symptoms of stroke and the new treatments that are helping people recover with fewer lasting effects. We recently spoke with IRP senior scientist Lawrence L. Latour, Ph.D., an expert on brain imaging who leads the Acute Cerebrovascular Diagnostics Unit, a unique partnership between the NIH Intramural Research Program and two hospitals in the metro, D.C., area: Suburban Hospital and Medstar Washington Hospital Center. The collaboration, launched in 2000, aimed to incorporate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in examinations of patients experiencing symptoms of stroke. This allowed the clinicians to diagnose patients more easily and then, through imaging at later time points, look at how patients responded to their treatments in order to learn ways to improve therapy.
Young Scientists Demonstrate Fruits of Their IRP Research
There’s nothing quite like visiting NIH’s Postbac Poster Day to boost your faith that the future of biomedical science is bright. On May 1 and 2, more than a thousand recent college graduates participating in NIH’s Postbac program showed their colleagues, friends, and family the fascinating projects they’re working on in IRP labs. From delving into the aging brain to making sense of the bacteria on our skin, these aspiring researchers demonstrated that they have the passion needed to unravel the most complex mysteries of human biology. Read on to learn about the scientific questions just a few of them have been doggedly investigating over the past year.
IRP’s Jinani Jayasekera Hopes to Help Women Make Medical Decisions
The women in our lives deserve flowers and thanks on Mother’s Day, but they also deserve attention to their well-being. This past Sunday, May 12, marked the start of Women’s Health Week, a time to reflect on the decisions women make to look after their own health.
For instance, breast cancer treatments are something no woman wants to think about, but every year about 240,000 newly diagnosed women in the U.S. face high-stakes decisions about what medical interventions to pursue. IRP Stadtman investigator Jinani Jayasekera, Ph.D., and her colleagues in the IRP’s Health Equity and Decision Sciences (HEADS) lab develop software-based clinical decision-making tools to help women and their doctors assess and address their health risks when choosing treatments.
Annual Event Recognizes Three Young Researchers’ Scientific Accomplishments
For decades, NIH has been working to solve the problems that have long stymied the careers of many young women interested in becoming scientists. As that essential effort continues, it’s important to shine a spotlight on some of the talented female researchers who are contributing to our knowledge of human health and biology right now.
One way the IRP does that is through the annual NIH Women Scientists Advisors (WSA) Scholar Award Symposium, which each year gives three early-career female scientists working in NIH labs the opportunity to present their work to the entire IRP community. At this year’s symposium, which took place April 29, the most recent group to be named WSA Scholars by NIH’s Women Scientists Advisors committee discussed their efforts to probe pollution’s impact on health, improve immunotherapy for cancer, and examine how screen time affects kids. Read on to learn more about their award-winning research.
Research Could Lead to Cell-Based Therapies for Infections and Autoimmune Reactions
One thing many scientists love about their job is that the topic they study can still surprise them even after decades of research. IRP senior investigator Eva Mezey, M.D.,Ph.D., for instance, has spent the last 20 years investigating a particular set of cells in the bone marrow, yet until now she had never uncovered one of their most intriguing tricks. In a recent study, her IRP team and its collaborators discovered that those cells make a substance that can fight infections and tame hyper-active immune responses.
Catching Up With Former NIH Director Francis Collins
It has been 20 years since researchers around the world successfully mapped most of the roughly 20,000 genes that make up the human genome. Former NIH Director Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D. led the Human Genome Project through most of its 13-year progression and continues to push the limits of genetics today. As we celebrate National DNA Day on April 25, the 71st anniversary of the publication of DNA’s double-helix structure, we took some time to catch up with Dr. Collins and learn what he’s been up to since he stepped down as NIH Director in December 2021.
The dozen or so researchers in Dr. Collins’s lab focus on the role of genes in a variety of diseases, ranging from conditions caused by rare mutations in single genes to common ailments influenced by the interplay of hundreds of genes, lifestyle behaviors, and environmental factors. His two main research interests are type 2 diabetes and Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a rare disorder that causes exceptionally rapid aging in children.
IRP Researchers Identify Two Types of Liver Damage and a Possible Treatment for One
While alcohol is a source of celebration and relaxation for many, it does come with significant drawbacks, especially when people over-consume it. For people who have trouble controlling their alcohol consumption — a condition called alcohol use disorder (AUD) — one of the most dangerous consequences can be damage to the liver, the organ that filters toxins like alcohol out of the blood.
In honor of Alcohol Awareness Month this April, I spoke with IRP senior investigator Bin Gao, M.D., Ph.D., about his quest to understand how AUD damages the liver and other organs by uncovering the molecules and mechanisms involved in that damage. His IRP lab also investigates how alcohol is processed in the body, producing insights that could be used to identify strategies for reducing alcohol consumption or reversing alcohol’s harmful effects.
This page was last updated on Friday, January 14, 2022
