Features

An Insider’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Challenges of Life in Outer Space

BY MEGAN KALOMIRIS, NIAID

Seeking signs of ancient life, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars on February 18th, 2021. When might humans be able to visit the red planet? The answer is complicated, as Mark Shelhamer and Christopher Wanjek explained in their virtual Demystifying Medicine lecture on February 23rd.

Searching for Answers

NIH’s Undiagnosed Diseases Program Grows Into a Worldwide Model

BY MICHAEL TABASKO, OD

Zarko Stanacev had suffered debilitating symptoms for more than a decade. What started out as episodes of hearing loss and severe headaches escalated to periodic seizures and meningitis. The attacks rendered him nearly comatose, confined him to a wheelchair at times, and cloaked him in profound fatigue. Without answers, the prospect of his living a normal life seemed out of reach. When his own doctors failed to figure out what was wrong, the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program saved him.

Return of a Century-old Therapy for Fighting Life-threatening Antibiotic-resistant Infections

Paul Turner’s and Matthew Laub’s WALS Lectures on Phage Therapy

BY SUBHASH VERMA, NCI

Antibiotic resistance (AR) looms as one of the biggest public health crises of our time. But the use of bacteriophages (phages) to treat AR infections caused by bacteria offers a glimmer of hope. Phages are naturally-occurring viruses that invade bacterial cells and replicate. And phages are everywhere; one can assuredly find them in a lake, sewage water, or farm.

Detecting and Fighting Transplant Rejection

Profile: Sean Agbor-Enoh, M.D., Ph.D.

BY ETHAN SMITH, NINR

During his medical training, Sean Agbor-Enoh became aware that the standard method of detecting organ rejection—a tissue biopsy—was problematic. By the time a biopsy revealed that the organ was being rejected, it was often too late to save the lung. He has dedicated his career to finding better ways to prevent organ-transplant rejection.

COVID-19 Timeline at NIH (March-April 2021)

COVID-19 Research and Activities at NIH

Highlights of the COVID-19-related activities that were going on at NIH in March and April 2021.