IRP Researchers Discover Center for Pain Control in the Brain
While pain may be a sensation created by the brain, that doesn’t mean it’s all in your head. New research is showing how a delicate interplay between opposing types of neurons deep within the brain dials pain sensations up and down in response to injuries and other experiences.
September is Pain Awareness Month, a time to recognize that pain is a fact of life. However, while short-term pain is a critical warning system that keeps us from touching hot stoves and prompts us to visit the doctor for necessary medical care, the chronic pain experienced by nearly 100 million Americans often serves no protective purpose. To add insult to injury, this constant and often debilitating pain can evade both explanation and effective treatment.
IRP Scientists Recognized for RNA Revelations and Immune System Insights
Since its founding in 1780, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences has honored excellence in fields ranging from the humanities and arts to math, biology, and physics. In 2023, two of IRP’s eminent researchers joined the ranks of such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin and Nobel Prize winner Barbara McClintock as members of the Academy for their work in immunology and RNA science.
Annual Event Held In-Person for First Time in Four Years
A few weeks ago, NIH’s Natcher Conference Center bustled with the youthful scientific enthusiasm of IRP summer interns for the first time since 2019, the last time that the IRP’s Summer Poster Day was held in-person. At this year’s event, held on August 3 and 4, the hundreds of high school and college students who conducted research in IRP labs as part of NIH’s Summer Internship Program this year eagerly showed off the fruits of their labors — from discoveries about how weight loss drugs affect the brain to new insights into a potential treatment target for age-related vision loss. Read on to learn more about a few of these scientific upstarts and the research revelations they’ve helped uncover.
IRP Discoveries Could Enhance Recovery from Brain Injuries
Many futurists and science fiction writers dream about a time when nanobots will run around our bodies fixing any damage that occurs. Until that day comes, we’re reliant on our immune system to mop up when things go wrong, a fickle set of cells that sometimes needs a push to get going. IRP scientists recently discovered how a particular type of cell in the blood stimulates the brain’s construction crew to leap into action, potentially opening the door to treatments that boost healing in the brain.
Visiting Medical Students Look Back on IRP Research Experience
When patients are affected by complex and poorly understood medical problems, it can only be an advantage when their doctors have one foot in the exam room and another in a laboratory studying the disease. However, physicians don’t accrue scientific skills on their own. Rather, they often must venture outside of their medical education to gain experience in research via programs like NIH’s Medical Research Scholars Program (MRSP).
The MRSP allows medical students from across the United States to spend a year working in IRP labs alongside seasoned scientists. The 50 medical students and one dental student selected as 2022 Medical Research Scholars recently finished their time at NIH after arriving on campus last July. Between classes, clinical rounds, study sessions, and exams, five of those young men and women found the time to describe their experience at NIH to the “I Am Intramural” blog, so read on to get a taste of what the MRSP has to offer our nation’s aspiring physicians.
IRP Research Investigates Disease’s Roots Beyond Smoking
Today is World Lung Cancer Day, bringing increased awareness to a disease most commonly associated with smoking tobacco products. Yet even though cigarette smoking rates have decreased over the past few decades, this deadly disease remains responsible for more deaths than any other type of cancer — more than 125,000 per year in the U.S. alone. In fact, between 10 and 25 percent of lung cancers occur in people who never smoked.
IRP Stadtman Investigator Jiyeon Choi, Ph.D., has always been curious about how our DNA influences the traits we have and our risk for diseases. When it comes to genes’ contribution to cancer risk, the stakes are particularly high, but Dr. Choi noticed a gap in research when it came to understanding the role genetic variation plays in lung cancer risk. She and her research team aim to fill this gap using a battery of high-tech genomic studies to root out the genes and molecular processes that make some people more susceptible to the disease.
NIH Scientist Spurred Revolution in Autoimmune Disease Therapy
IRP senior investigator John O’Shea, M.D., is a man of many talents. During his career at NIH, he has applied his creativity and drive not just to playing a variety of instruments in a rock band made up of NIH scientists, the Affordable Rock ‘n’ Roll Act (ARRA), but also to his groundbreaking research on the immune system.
This May, Dr. O’Shea, who is the Scientific Director at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his influential research on the biochemical chain of events that kicks our immune system into gear, which has led to a better understanding of how genetic mutations interfere with the immune response, as well as the development of an entire new class of drugs that target the immune system.
IRP Research Brings Hope to Patients with Deadly Cancer
Among the many forms of brain cancer, glioma may be the most well-known, having recently taken the lives of Ted Kennedy in 2009, John McCain in 2018, and actor Tim Conway in 2019. Despite the attention drawn to it by the deaths of these public figures, glioma remains both mysterious and highly lethal. Fortunately, IRP researchers are fighting back against this stubborn foe. In preparation for World Brain Day on July 22, we talked with IRP Lasker Clinical Research Scholar Jing Wu, M.D., Ph.D., about her efforts to better understand glioma and identify potential therapies to treat the deadly disease.
IRP Study Answers Key Questions About Bone Development and Healing
The idea that there can be “too much of a good thing” applies just as much to the human body as it does to an overly sweet dessert or excessive holiday decorations. For instance, you might think that rapid bone growth would be helpful for fixing fractures, but it can actually make bones weaker in the long run. A recent IRP study revealed how a certain molecule manages the way bones develop in a growing fetus and heal after damage to make sure they don’t trade strength for speed.
IRP Researchers Leave Jargon Behind for Three-Minute Talks Competition
Scientific research is often said to take place in an “ivory tower” — not exactly an image associated with accessibility, trust, or empathy. Yet it is essential that members of the public be able to understand the work that researchers devote their lives to.
In recognition of that need, dozens of IRP postbacs, graduate students, and postdocs participate each year in NIH’s Three Minute Talks (TmT) competition. On June 22, this year’s eleven finalists offered clear and concise descriptions of their efforts to unfold the mysteries of proteins’ shapes, discover the lethal role of inflammation in infections, repackage cancer therapies to enhance their effectiveness, and much more.
This page was last updated on Friday, January 14, 2022
