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:
Saxophonist Joey Berkley was living his dream: he was playing jazz in New York City. But about 20 years ago, he noticed his left hand wasn’t cooperating. It got worse and worse.
“As soon as I picked my horn up and touched — literally just touched my horn — my hands would twist into pretzel shapes,” Berkley recalled in a conversation with Morning Edition host A Martinez.
Berkley was experiencing focal dystonia, a movement disorder marked by involuntary muscle contractions.
He said he “muscled through it” as best he could. But that meant he wasn’t just pressing down on the keys of his sax — he was crushing them. “My fingers would literally be bleeding afterwards,” he said. “I had to quit playing.”
Joey Berkley learned of an experimental procedure at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, that involved placing an electrode directly into his brain.
A new study by scientists from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), part of the National Institutes of Health, resolves longstanding questions about the origin of recurrent chromosomal rearrangements — known as translocations — that drive lymphomas and leukemias in humans. Translocations occur when broken strands of DNA from one chromosome are erroneously joined with those of another chromosome, thus deregulating genetic information and leading to cell transformation.
Wearing shoes and genomics are tied together in strategy to eliminate podoconiosis
Farmers in the highlands of southern Ethiopia scratch out a subsistence living from the region’s volcanic red clay. The soil supports the farms, but fine-grained, volcanic rock particles in the dirt threaten the farmers and their families. Continual exposure of bare feet to the volcanic soil causes 1 in 20 people to develop a painful inflammation of the lower extremities that, over time, leads to foot disfigurement. ... Now, researchers think they know why some 4 million people in at least 10 countries worldwide develop this incapacitating condition. One-fifth carry genetic variants that cause their immune system to react to the volcanic dust.
Scans reveal how genes alter circuit hub to shape temperament
A personality profile marked by overly gregarious yet anxious behavior is rooted in abnormal development of a circuit hub buried deep in the front center of the brain, say scientists at the National Institutes of Health. They used three different types of brain imaging to pinpoint the suspect brain area in people with Williams syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by these behaviors. Matching the scans to scores on a personality rating scale revealed that the more an individual with Williams syndrome showed these personality/temperament traits, the more abnormalities there were in the brain structure, called the insula.
Criteria for a broadened syndrome of acute onset obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have been proposed by a National Institutes of Health scientist and her colleagues. The syndrome, Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), includes children and teens that suddenly develop on-again/off-again OCD symptoms or abnormal eating behaviors, along with other psychiatric symptoms -- without any known cause.
Infants' faces evoke species-specific patterns of brain activity in adults
Distinct patterns of activity — which may indicate a predisposition to care for infants — appear in the brains of adults who view an image of an infant face — even when the child is not theirs, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and in Germany, Italy, and Japan. Seeing images of infant faces appeared to activate in the adult's brains circuits that reflect preparation for movement and speech as well as feelings of reward. The findings raise the possibility that studying this activity will yield insights not only into the caregiver response, but also when the response fails, such as in instances of child neglect or abuse.
Collaboration may make drug development pipelines more productive
The National Institutes of Health and Eli Lilly and Company will generate a publicly available resource to profile the effects of thousands of approved and investigational medicines in a variety of sophisticated disease-relevant testing systems, NIH announced today.
Flying footballs, couch potato mice, and what can happen with explosive-propelled iron spikes are just a few of the interactive tools that scientists from the National Institutes of Health will use to teach young people about the amazing human brain at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Md., on March 14 and 15.
Language, motor deficits, seen within months of starting treatment
Infants and toddlers who have been treated for cancer tend to reach certain developmental milestones later than do their healthy peers, say researchers at the National Institutes of Health and in Italy.
In recognition of World Kidney Day on March 8, the National Institutes of Health is promoting efforts to reduce disparities in organ transplantation. This is particularly important among African-Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians, all of whom are disproportionately affected by kidney failure — yet are less likely to receive organ transplants.
A new series of monthly health tips, Time to Talk Tips, will provide consumers with easy-to-read information on complementary health practices. The effort is managed by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health. A resource in NCCAM's Time to Talk campaign, the series highlights specific health topics, such as the safe use of dietary supplements, natural products used for the flu and colds, and mind and body approaches used to manage symptoms of a variety of conditions.
