Multidisciplinary Research Tackles an Increasingly Common Pancreatic Disorder
Investigators from across NIH’s Intramural Research Program are using multifaceted approaches that both directly and tangentially explain the strikingly different pathways that lead to pancreatitis, a condition that costs $2.6 billion in health care spending each year.
The inaugural event aimed to help junior scientists better understand the benefits and challenges of government–industry collaboration and featured panels of scientific leaders from NIH, academia, and industry who showcased how synergistic partnerships are tackling problems at the forefront of biomedical research.
Leap year brings us an extra day every four years for the celestial and the earthly to sync. Rare days such as these also bring focus to rare diseases, which at NIH offers patients, family members, and the intramural and extramural scientific communities a day to showcase outcomes that reach far beyond synchronicity.
Matthew Weed Delivers Powerful Talk on Making Health Care Accessible to All
Disability and health care go hand in hand, and yet health care remains far behind the curve in making care and health-related information accessible. Matthew Weed, a health care accessibility consultant, spoke about bridging this gap at NIH.
Research Hints that Diet Choices May Affect Health by Modulating the Immune System
Scientists from NIAID and NIDDK and their collaborators found that vegan and ketogenic diets remodeled the human microbiome and immune system, and each diet was found to have its own unique implications. The results could open the door to a new era of research aimed at using dietary interventions as a way to modulate the body’s immune response.
In 2021, 134 people died in the United States per day from firearm violence. This is a big public health problem that can be addressed using sound public health approaches, according to David Hemenway, professor of health policy at Harvard University (Boston).
The original purpose of GLP-1 receptor agonists was to aid glucose regulation, but the appeal of these drugs, which include semaglutide (the active ingredient in Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus), now extends beyond their ability to treat diabetes and help people shed pounds. Basic research, case reports, and patient anecdotes suggest that GLP-1 receptor agonists may also curb alcohol consumption.
Neurodevelopmental cell regulation, environmental and occupational exposures, and precision therapies are just a few examples of the exciting new research explored by the latest cohort of scientists selected for the Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigators Program.
The Lasker program identifies promising early-career physician-scientists in a wide variety of fields and provides them with funding and resources to start their own independent lab at NIH. Purely by coincidence, the latest Lasker Scholars happen to all specialize in the study and treatment of cancer. Read on to learn more about the new ideas and bounding enthusiasm these scholars are bringing to NIH’s fight against this perplexing disease.
