Research advances from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Intramural Research Program (IRP) often make headlines. Read the news releases that describe our most recent findings:
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Sam Srisatta, a 20-year-old Florida college student, spent a month living inside a government hospital here last fall, playing video games and allowing scientists to document every morsel of food that went into his mouth.
From big bowls of salad to platters of meatballs and spaghetti sauce, Srisatta noshed his way through a nutrition study aimed at understanding the health effects of ultraprocessed foods, the controversial fare that now accounts for more than 70% of the U.S. food supply. He allowed The Associated Press to tag along for a day.
“Today my lunch was chicken nuggets, some chips, some ketchup,” said Srisatta, one of three dozen participants paid $5,000 each to devote 28 days of their lives to science. “It was pretty fulfilling.”
Examining exactly what made those nuggets so satisfying is the goal of the widely anticipated research led by National Institutes of Health nutrition researcher Kevin Hall.
“What we hope to do is figure out what those mechanisms are so that we can better understand that process,” Hall said.
Whole-genome sequencing study found air pollution to cause more cancer-related changes than secondhand smoke
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, have found that fine-particulate air pollution, which includes pollution from vehicles and industry, was strongly associated with increased genomic changes in lung cancer tumors among people who have never smoked. By assembling the largest-ever whole-genome analysis of lung cancer in individuals who have never smoked, researchers were able to link air pollution exposure to increased cancer-driving and cancer-promoting genetic mutations. This could potentially lead to more prevention strategies for never-smokers.
Researchers analyzed lung tumors from 871 never-smoker patients across 28 geographic locations worldwide as part of the Sherlock-Lung study. They found associations between air pollution exposure and changes in the TP53 gene, and other genetic mutational signatures previously associated with tobacco smoking. They also observed a relationship between air pollution and shorter telomeres, which are sections of DNA found at the end of chromosomes. Telomeres shorten naturally with age and shorter telomeres are related to cells inability to continue to replicate. However, scientists found fine particulate air pollution was linked to premature shortening of telomeres.
Prior genomic studies of lung cancer have focused on tobacco smokers, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of how lung cancer develops in people who have never used tobacco. By beginning to uncover the mechanisms through which tissues acquire cancer-causing or cancer-promoting mutations following environmental exposures, this study helps scientists better understand the primary drivers of lung cancer in this population — which represents up to 25 percent of all lung cancer cases globally.
NIH study could help to guide clinical recommendations for hormone therapy use among women under 55 years old
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found that two common types of hormone therapy may alter breast cancer risk in women before age 55. Researchers discovered that women treated with unopposed estrogen hormone therapy (E-HT) were less likely to develop the disease than those who did not use hormone therapy. They also found that women treated with estrogen plus progestin hormone therapy (EP-HT) were more likely to develop breast cancer than women who did not use hormone therapy. Together, these results could help to guide clinical recommendations for hormone therapy use among younger women.
The two hormone therapies analyzed in the study are often used to manage symptoms related to menopause or following hysterectomy (removal of uterus) or oophorectomy (removal of one or both ovaries). Unopposed estrogen therapy is recommended only for women who have had a hysterectomy because of its known association with uterine cancer risk.
“Hormone therapy can greatly improve the quality of life for women experiencing severe menopausal symptoms or those who have had surgeries that affect their hormone levels,” said lead author Katie O’Brien, Ph.D., of NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). “Our study provides greater understanding of the risks associated with different types of hormone therapy, which we hope will help patients and their doctors develop more informed treatment plans.”
Findings show this amino acid did not longitudinally decline with age
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found that levels of circulating taurine, a conditionally essential amino acid involved in multiple important biological functions, is unlikely to serve as a good biomarker for the aging process. In blood samples from humans, monkeys, and mice, scientists found that circulating taurine levels often increased or remained constant with age. Analysis of longitudinal data showed that within individual differences in taurine levels often exceeded age-related changes. Researchers also found that taurine levels were inconsistently associated with health outcomes across age, species, and cohorts, suggesting that declining taurine is not a universal marker of aging. Instead, its impact may depend on individual physiological contexts shaped by genetic, nutritional, and environmental factors. Results are published in Science.
Taurine recently gained popularity as dietary supplement due to recent research that found supplementation with taurine improved multiple age-related traits and extended lifespan in model organisms (worms and mice). However, there is no solid clinical data that shows its supplementation benefits humans.
“A recent research article on taurine led us to evaluate this molecule as a potential biomarker of aging in multiple species,” said Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., study co-author and chief of the Translational Gerontology Branch at NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA).
Studies demonstrate the effect of retinal injury on visual processing pathways, providing insights for the development of vision restoration therapies
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified which brain circuits are vital for visual acuity and how they are affected by damaged retinal cells. While vision restoration therapies, such as stem-cell and gene therapies, aim to replace or repair damaged cells in the eye, it is critical to understand how brain circuits involved in vision are affected by retinal cell loss. Study results suggest that targeting these circuits may be necessary to achieve optimal recovery of visual function, and have significant implications for the development of future vision restoration therapies that address visual pathways beyond the retina. The study published today in The Journal of Neuroscience.
“A huge amount of progress has been made in repairing the eye, however little attention has been paid to the functional consequences beyond the eye,” said the study’s lead investigator, Farran Briggs, Ph.D., senior investigator at NIH’s National Eye Institute (NEI). “Brain circuits downstream of damaged or dying retinal cells in the eye may also undergo some loss of function following changes to their retinal inputs.”
Visual processing involves interactions between neurons in the eye and brain allowing us to see the world around us. These pathways originate in photoreceptor cells in the retina that convert light energy into electrical signals, which are then transmitted to the brain's visual processing centers. When retinal cells become damaged due to injury or disease, vision is often impaired. In a process known as neuroplasticity, the brain undergoes functional changes to adapt to a retinal injury or disease/degeneration. A person who experiences vision loss, for example, may have a resulting “blind spot” in a portion of their field of view.
Visual processing involves interactions between neurons in the eye and brain, allowing us to see the world around us.
RTX is a non-addictive pain therapy derived from a cactus-like plant
National Institute of Health (NIH) scientists report that a first-in-human clinical trial of a new therapy based on the plant-derived molecule resiniferatoxin (RTX) shows that it is a safe and effective agent for pain control in patients with intractable cancer pain. Researchers tested a single injection of small quantities of RTX into the lumbar cerebral spinal fluid (by lumbar puncture) of advanced-stage cancer patients and found that it reduced their reported worst pain intensity by 38 percent and their use of pain-relieving opioids by 57 percent.
“The effects are immediate,” said Andrew Mannes, M.D., lead study author and chief of the NIH Clinical Center Department of Perioperative Medicine. “This is a potential new therapy from a new family of drugs that gives people with severe cancer pain an opportunity to return some normality to their lives.”
The trial enrolled research participants with terminal end-stage cancer who were among the 15% of cancer patients unable to find pain relief from standard of care pain interventions, including vast quantity of opiates without relief.
A single injection of RTX provided patients durable relief. Patients’ need for pain-relieving opioids declined sharply, and their quality of life improved. They no longer needed to spend significant periods being sedated with opioids and after treatment were able to reengage with their family, friends and communities.
The technique may enable higher doses and combinations of cell therapies
National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists have developed a new surgical technique for implanting multiple tissue grafts in the eye's retina. The findings in animals may help advance treatment options for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is a leading cause of vision loss among older Americans. A report about the technique published today in JCI Insight.
In diseases such as AMD, the light-sensitive retina tissue at the back of the eye degenerates. Scientists are testing therapies for restoring damaged retinas with grafts of tissue grown in the lab from patient-derived stem cells. Until now, surgeons have only been able to place one graft in the retina, limiting the area that can be treated in patients, and as well as the ability to conduct side-by-side comparisons in animal models. Such comparisons are crucial for confirming that the tissue grafts are integrating with the retina and the underlying blood supply from a network of tiny blood vessels known as the choriocapillaris.
For the technique, investigators designed a new surgical clamp that maintains eye pressure during the insertion of two tissue patches in immediate succession while minimizing damage to the surrounding tissue.
Top image shows the scaffold-only, which served as a control. Bottom image shows how the scaffold with RPE regenerated the choriocapillaris (labeled red), the part of the eye that supplies the retina with oxygen and nutrients.
Poly-metabolite scores could reduce reliance on self-reported dietary data in large population studies
For the first time, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified patterns of metabolites in blood and urine that can be used as an objective measure of an individual’s consumption of energy from ultra-processed foods. Metabolites are left after the body converts food into energy, a process known as metabolism. Scientists used these data to develop a score based on multiple metabolites, known as a poly-metabolite score, that has the potential to reduce the reliance on, or complement the use of, self-reported dietary data in large population studies. The findings appeared May 20, 2025, in PLOS Medicine.
“Limitations of self-reported diet are well known. Metabolomics provides an exciting opportunity to not only improve our methods for objectively measuring complex exposures like diet and intake of ultra-processed foods, but also to understand the mechanisms by which diet might be impacting health,” said lead investigator Erikka Loftfield, Ph.D., M.P.H., of NIH’s National Cancer Institute.
Diets high in ultra-processed foods, which are defined as ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat, industrially manufactured products, typically high in calories and low in essential nutrients, have been linked to increased risk of obesity and related chronic diseases, including some types of cancer. Large population studies quantifying the health effects of ultraprocessed foods typically rely on self-reported data from dietary questionnaires. Such measures may be subject to differences in reporting and may not account for changes in the food supply over time. As a result of this study, researchers now have an objective measure of ultra-processed food intake to help advance the study of associations between ultra-processed foods and health outcomes.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified a series of changes in the architecture and cell composition of connective tissues of the breast, known as stromal tissue, that is associated with an increased risk of developing aggressive breast cancer among women with benign breast disease, and poorer rates of survival among women with invasive breast cancer. This process, which they call stromal disruption, could potentially be used as a biomarker to identify women with benign breast disease who are at high risk of developing aggressive breast cancers, as well as those with breast cancer who may be at increased risk of recurrence or death.
Such insights could help inform the development of cancer prevention and treatment strategies that target the stromal microenvironment. In addition, stromal disruption is inexpensive to assess and could be widely adopted, particularly in low-resource settings where molecular analysis is impractical or very expensive.
In the study, the researchers used machine learning to detect subtle changes in the stroma of 4,023 donated samples of healthy breast tissue, 974 biopsies of tissue with benign breast disease, and 4,223 biopsies of tissue with invasive breast cancer.
Slides showing minimal disruption (left) and substantial disruption (right) in breast stromal tissue.
Despite increasing incidence rates, cancer deaths in young people have not increased overall
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have completed a comprehensive analysis of cancer statistics for different age groups in the United States and found that from 2010 through 2019, the incidence of 14 cancer types increased among people under age 50. Of these cancer types, nine — including several common cancers, such as breast cancer and colorectal cancer — also increased in some groups of people aged 50 and older. However, the incidence of 19 other cancer types — including lung cancer and prostate cancer — decreased among people under age 50, so the total rate of all cancers diagnosed in both younger and older age groups did not increase, nor did the rate of cancer death.
“This study provides a starting point for understanding which cancers are increasing among individuals under age 50,” said lead investigator Meredith Shiels, Ph.D., of NIH’s National Cancer Institute. “The causes of these increases are likely to be cancer specific, including cancer risk factors becoming more common at younger ages, changes in cancer screening or detection, and updates to clinical diagnosis or coding of cancers.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes for Health (NIH) today announced the development of the next-generation, universal vaccine platform, Generation Gold Standard, using a beta-propiolactone (BPL)-inactivated, whole-virus platform.
This initiative represents a decisive shift toward transparency, effectiveness, and comprehensive preparedness, funding the NIH’s in-house development of universal influenza and coronavirus vaccines, including candidates BPL-1357 and BPL-24910. These vaccines aim to provide broad-spectrum protection against multiple strains of pandemic-prone viruses such as H5N1 avian influenza and coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, and MERS-CoV.
“Our commitment is clear: every innovation in vaccine development must be grounded in gold standard science and transparency, and subjected to the highest standards of safety and efficacy testing,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
“Generation Gold Standard is a paradigm shift,” said NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. “It extends vaccine protection beyond strain-specific limits and prepares for flu viral threats – not just today’s, but tomorrow’s as well — using traditional vaccine technology brought into the 21st century.”
Colorized transmission electron micrograph of influenza A/H1N1 virus particles.
