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:
Whether you’re shedding pounds with the help of effective new medicines, slimming down after weight loss surgery or cutting calories and adding exercise, there will come a day when the numbers on the scale stop going down, and you hit the dreaded weight loss plateau.
In a recent study, Kevin Hall, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health who specializes in measuring metabolism and weight change, looked at when weight loss typically stops depending on the method people were using todrop pounds. He broke down the plateau into mathematical models using data from high-quality clinical trials of different ways to lose weight to understand why people stop losing when they do. The study published Monday in the journal Obesity.
A new Medical Research Scholars Program for medical and dental students will begin in September 2012 in Bethesda, Md., the National Institutes of Health has announced. The program will offer research experiences with intramural investigators from across NIH in basic science laboratories, and in clinical and translational research conducted at the NIH Clinical Center, the world's largest hospital dedicated to patient-oriented research.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have created a mathematical model—and an accompanying online weight simulation tool—of what happens when people of varying weights, diets and exercise habits try to change their weight. The findings challenge the commonly held belief that eating 3,500 fewer calories—or burning them off exercising—will always result in a pound of weight loss.
National Institutes of Health researchers have found that Parkin, an important protein linked with some cases of early-onset Parkinson’s disease, regulates how cells in our bodies take up and process dietary fats.
A new atlas of gene expression in the mouse brain provides insight into how genes work in the outer part of the brain called the cerebral cortex. In humans, the cerebral cortex is the largest part of the brain, and the region responsible for memory, sensory perception and language.
Researchers have reported that obese male mice treated with a synthetic compound called SRT1720 were healthier and lived longer compared to non-treated obese mice. The experimental compound was found to improve the function of the liver, pancreas and heart in mice.
Current cigarette smokers have a higher risk of bladder cancer than previously reported, and the risk in women is now comparable to that in men, according to a study by scientists from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The report was published on Aug. 16, 2011, in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A study using mice provides insight into how a specific receptor subtype in the brain could play a role in increasing a person’s risk for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The research, conducted by the Intramural Research Program (IRP) at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, could also help explain how stimulants work to treat symptoms of ADHD.
Researchers have traced in detail how certain powerful HIV neutralizing antibodies evolve, a finding that generates vital clues to guide the design of a preventive HIV vaccine, according to a study appearing in Science Express this week. The discoveries were made by a team led by the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered in mice a molecular trigger that initiates myelination, the process by which brain cell networks are reinforced with an insulating material called myelin that speeds their ability to transmit messages.
National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., has announced the appointment of Mahendra S. Rao, M.D., Ph.D. as the director for the new NIH Intramural Center for Regenerative Medicine (NIH-CRM). The NIH-CRM is an initiative to create a world-class center of excellence in stem cell technology on the NIH campus, including induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), which can have applications in many systems and organs of the body. This is an initiative of the NIH Common Fund and will be administered by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).
