Bionics Gives New Hope to Those Living With Physical Disabilities
BY: MICHAEL TABASKO, OD
MIT Professor Hugh Herr, who is building bionic limbs to end physical disability caused by trauma and disease, shared his story, “On the Design of Bionic Limbs: The Science of Tissue-Synthetic Interface,” at a recent Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series presentation. NIH’s Functional and Applied Biomechanics Section is also investigating how such technology can improve the function of people living with movement disabilities as a result of neurologic disorders such as cerebral palsy and spina bifida.
Kizzmekia Corbett and Barney Graham Recognized for Leading IRP Vaccine Research
In early January 2020, Chinese scientists had isolated a new coronavirus that was causing a serious epidemic in China’s Wuhan province and released its genetic sequence to the scientific community around the world. Barney Graham, director of the VRC’s Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory, and VRC research fellow Kizzmekia Corbett dropped everything and immediately began working on a vaccine for the illness that would become known as COVID-19
There’s a high demand for new treatments for uveitis, an intraocular inflammatory disease that destroys eye tissues and can even render a person blind. Charles Egwuagu, a senior investigator at the National Eye Institute, is working to develop new treatments for uveitis that don’t have the dreaded side effects of other therapies. His approach is a unique cell-based therapy using immune cells called regulatory B cells.
Alexandra Ambrico is a “healthy volunteer” participating in the NIH clinical trial ”Brain Dopamine Function in Human Obesity,” which is measuring dopamine activity in the brain to determine how it relates to body weight and eating behavior. Here she answers a few questions about what it’s like to be part of the trial.
Mariana Kaplan Is Discovering New Ways to Fight Lupus
BY NATALIE HAGEN, NCATS
Known as the “disease with a thousand faces,” systemic lupus erythematosus is a lifelong autoimmune disease that affects mostly women of childbearing age and causes widespread inflammation, damage to organ systems, and premature cardiovascular disease. NIH Senior Investigator Mariana Kaplan is exploring how neutrophils wreak havoc on the immune system in lupus and other autoimmune disorders.
How Its Architecture Informs Us of the Past and Present
BY LEANNE LOW, NIAID
Once referred to (unofficially) as the “U.S. Lunatic Asylum,” St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington, D.C., established in 1855, remains open, welcoming and helping patients with serious and persistent mental illnesses. Most people, however, are unaware of the numerous changes the hospital has undergone both in landscape and in medical practice.
