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.
IRP Study Provides Insight into Cancer Treatment’s Skin-Thickening Side Effects
Scientists have long dreamt of leveraging information about our genes to personalize medical treatment. However, in working towards that effort, they have increasingly discovered the importance not just of what genetic variants are present in a person’s DNA, but how active each of those genes is. Now, new IRP research suggests the possibility of using that information to personalize medical treatment for patients who experience serious skin problems after receiving a transplant of the bone marrow’s blood-producing stem cells.
Research Suggests Hormonal Exposures In-Utero Influence Mental Health
Over the past few decades, broad stereotypes about how men and women behave have given way to a more nuanced understanding of the many factors that contribute to sex differences. While culture and environment undoubtedly play a huge role, it’s becoming increasingly clear that biological influences shape male and female brains differently starting at the very beginning of life. Recent IRP research sheds additional light on this age-old question by revealing that women exposed to higher levels of certain hormones in-utero had emotional responses to the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic that more closely matched those of men.
IRP Research Explores the Health Effects of Specific Dietary Components
When Hippocrates said, “Let food by thy medicine and medicine thy food,” he was on to something. That’s why National Nutrition Month, celebrated every March, calls attention to the important link between health and diet. To commemorate Nutrition Month this year, we spoke with IRP senior investigator Rashmi Sinha, Ph.D., about her efforts to tease out not only which foods help or harm out bodies, but why they do so.
Determining the health effects of different foods has long been a holy grail in research, but with so many variables, our knowledge remains vague at best. Some foods — processed meats, certain fats, sugar — clearly have negative effects when eaten in large amounts, while others like green vegetables and legumes are helpful. Unfortunately, there are a lot of unknowns in between.
This page was last updated on Friday, January 14, 2022
