In the News

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:

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Yes, Cooking Can Help Improve Your Mental Health — Here’s What Health Professionals Have to Say About It

Food & Wine
November 7, 2024

The act of cooking offers the chance to unwind and create something special, whether you’re planning to feed a crowd or just yourself. And while you may have noticed feeling good after whipping up that perfect pie or braise, there’s actually a lot of scientific data to suggest that cooking can have a positive impact on mental health. 

One meta-analysis (a report of pre-existing research) from the National Institutes of Health looked at 11 studies and found that “cooking interventions” — encouraging people to follow certain recipes or giving people cooking classes — can improve a person’s mental well-being. It specifically found that people who participated in cooking interventions reported having better self-esteem and quality of life, as well as a more positive emotional state after the fact. Another study even discovered that baking can help raise a person’s confidence level. 

NIH Clinical Center provides one of the largest publicly available chest x-ray datasets to scientific community

The dataset of scans is from more than 30,000 patients, including many with advanced lung disease.

The NIH Clinical Center recently released over 100,000 anonymized chest x-ray images and their corresponding data to the scientific community. The release will allow researchers across the country and around the world to freely access the datasets and increase their ability to teach computers how to detect and diagnose disease. Ultimately, this artificial intelligence mechanism can lead to clinicians making better diagnostic decisions for patients.

NIH compiled the dataset of scans from more than 30,000 patients, including many with advanced lung disease. Patients at the NIH Clinical Center, the nation’s largest hospital devoted entirely to clinical research, are partners in research and voluntarily enroll to participate in clinical trials. With patient privacy being paramount, the dataset was rigorously screened to remove all personally identifiable information before release.

Ronald M. Summers, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Investigator of the Clinical Image Processing Service in the Imaging Biomarkers and Computer-Aided Diagnosis Laboratory of the NIH Clinical Center Radiology and Imaging Sciences Department is available for interviews.

A chest x-ray identifies a lung mass.

A chest x-ray identifies a lung mass.

Three-in-one antibody protects monkeys from HIV-like virus

NIH and Sanofi scientists prepare to test antibody in people.

A three-pronged antibody made in the laboratory protected monkeys from infection with two strains of SHIV, a monkey form of HIV, better than individual natural antibodies from which the engineered antibody is derived, researchers report in Science today.

The three-pronged antibody, created by investigators from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Paris-based pharmaceutical company Sanofi, also stopped a greater number of HIV strains from infecting cells in the laboratory more potently than natural, single antibodies. This new broadly neutralizing antibody binds to three different critical sites on HIV.

Plans are under way to conduct early-phase clinical trials of the “trispecific” antibody in healthy people and in people living with HIV in the hope that it could eventually be used for long-acting HIV prevention and treatment. By binding to three different sites on the virus, the new antibody should be harder for HIV to dodge than natural, single antibodies.

Diagram of the “three-in-one” HIV antibody. The blue, purple and green segments each bind to a different critical site on the virus.

Diagram of the “three-in-one” HIV antibody. The blue, purple and green segments each bind to a different critical site on the virus.

Gulf spill oil dispersants associated with health symptoms in cleanup workers

Workers who were likely exposed to dispersants while cleaning up the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill experienced a range of health symptoms including cough and wheeze, and skin and eye irritation, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study appeared online Sept. 15 in Environmental Health Perspectives and is the first research to examine dispersant-related health symptoms in humans.

Oil dispersants are a blend of chemical compounds used to break down oil slicks into smaller drops of oil, making them easily degraded by natural processes or diluted by large volumes of water. The study estimated the likelihood of exposure to dispersants, based on the types of jobs the workers did and where. Individuals who handled dispersants, worked near where dispersants were being applied, or had contact with dispersant equipment reported the symptoms they experienced during oil spill cleanup as part of the Gulf Long-term Follow-up (GuLF) STUDY.

Dale Sandler, Ph.D., the lead GuLF STUDY researcher at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH, said the findings only apply to workers involved in the cleanup effort and not the general public.

Gulf spill oil dispersants associated with health symptoms in cleanup workers

In May 2010, cleanup workers in Venice, Louisiana, pressure washed oil booms to remove oil, debris, and dispersants.

Dr. James Ostell named Director of the National Center for Biotechnology Information

National Library of Medicine (NLM) Director Patricia Flatley Brennan, R.N., Ph.D., has appointed James M. Ostell, Ph.D., as the director of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of NLM at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Ostell has been with NCBI since it was established by Congress in 1988, and has helped shape it into one of the most widely used biomedical resources in the world.

NCBI supports and maintains a series of biomedical databases, including PubMed, GenBank, BLAST, Entrez, RefSeq, dbSNP, PubMed Central and dbGaP. It also provides researchers with access to analysis and computing tools to better understand genes and their role in health and disease.

“We are fortunate to have Dr. Ostell as director of NCBI,” said Dr. Brennan. “He brings a wealth of insight and experience, as well as vision, creativity, and a deep commitment to public service. He holds the respect of the entire NCBI workforce, and has shepherded NCBI into a model organization that embraces discovery and excellence in technical development. His appointment will ensure the continued preeminence of NCBI and maintain its outstanding record of achievement.”

Prior to his appointment as NCBI Director, Dr. Ostell served as chief of the NCBI Information Engineering Branch. In that role, he was responsible for designing, developing, building and deploying production resources at NCBI.

In 2007, Dr. Ostell was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine). In 2011, he was named an NIH Distinguished Investigator, an honor reserved for NIH's most distinguished senior investigators at the highest level of career accomplishment.

Dr. James Ostell, Director, NCBI

Dr. James Ostell, NCBI Director

NCI’s Douglas R. Lowy and John T. Schiller to receive 2017 Lasker Award

Two scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) will receive the 2017 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for their significant research leading to the development of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. The award is the country’s most prestigious biomedical research prize, and will be presented to John T. Schiller, Ph.D., of NCI’s Center for Cancer Research (CCR), and Douglas R. Lowy, M.D., also in CCR and acting director of NCI. NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Lowy’s and Dr. Schiller’s collaborative work to understand and prevent HPV infection has led to the approval of three preventive HPV vaccines by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

National Cancer Institute

John T. Schiller, Ph.D. (left), and Douglas R. Lowy, M.D., of the National Cancer Institute will receive the 2017 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.

IRP scientists illuminate mechanism of increased cardiovascular risks with HIV

Tick saliva molecule blocks process in human cells, nonhuman primates.

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have expanded the understanding of how chronic inflammation and persistent immune activation associated with HIV infection drive cardiovascular disease risk in people living with HIV. People living with HIV are up to twice as likely to experience heart attacks, strokes and other forms of cardiovascular disease as people who do not have the virus, even when HIV infection is well-controlled with the use of antiretroviral therapy.

The scientists found that certain immune cells proliferate in people living with HIV, expressing proteins and triggering inflammation and abnormal blood clotting. These processes can be blocked in cells and in nonhuman primate models with an experimental drug.

Sequencing all 24 human chromosomes uncovers rare disorders

Study from NIH and other institutions may help improve prenatal genetic screening

Extending noninvasive prenatal screening to all 24 human chromosomes can detect genetic disorders that may explain miscarriage and abnormalities during pregnancy, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. Because of the way data have been analyzed, typical genomic tests performed during pregnancy have targeted extra copies of chromosomes 21, 18 and 13, but rarely evaluated all 24 chromosomes. The study findings, which appear in the August 30 issue of Science Translational Medicine, may ultimately improve the accuracy of these tests, including by explaining why some give false-positive results.

Women often request noninvasive screening tests to detect genetic conditions. These tests, however, typically focus only on Down syndrome and other common trisomies. A trisomy is a condition in which there are three instances of a certain chromosome instead of the standard two.

Sequencing all 24 human chromosomes uncovers rare disorders

Conceptual image of a cell karyotype exhibiting trisomy, three copies of one chromosome. Darryl Leja, NHGRI.

NIH Clinical Center receives 2017 Excellence Award for outstanding emotional support to patients

The National Research Corporation (NRC) Health has selected the NIH Clinical Center as a recipient of its 2017 Excellence Award, having earned the highest ratings in overall satisfaction by patients and their families in the category of Emotional Support, among 426 eligible facilities. Each year, NRC Health recognizes top-performing hospitals and health systems that have exhibited an exceptional commitment to understanding each individual patient’s complete care journey.

“Compassion for our patients and their families is one of our guiding principles,” said NIH Clinical Center Chief Executive Officer James K. Gilman, M.D. “Our staff understand that as a world class research facility we must provide the very best in safe, high quality patient-centric care and support. This is a particularly meaningful award in which every Clinical Center employee will take great pride.”

Robotic exoskeleton offers potential new approach to alleviating crouch gait in children with cerebral palsy

Researchers from the NIH Clinical Center Rehabilitation Medicine Department have created the first robotic exoskeleton specifically designed to treat crouch (or flexed-knee) gait in children with cerebral palsy by providing powered knee extension assistance at key points during the walking cycle.

Crouch gait, the excessive bending of the knees while walking, is a common and debilitating condition in children with cerebral palsy. Despite conventional treatments (including muscle injections, surgery, physical therapy, and orthotics), crouch gait can lead to a progressive degeneration of the walking function, ultimately resulting in the loss of walking ability in roughly half of adults with the disorder.

Scientists develop infection model for tick-borne flaviviruses

National Institutes of Health scientists have filled a research gap by developing a laboratory model to study ticks that transmit flaviviruses, such as Powassan virus. Powassan virus was implicated in the death of a New York man earlier this year. The unusual model involves culturing organs taken from Ixodes scapularis ticks and then infecting those organ cultures with flaviviruses, according to researchers at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, part of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The researchers say the culture model will greatly increase knowledge about how flaviviruses infect ticks and could become a tool to evaluate medical countermeasures against tick-borne viruses.

Scientists develop infection model for tick-borne flaviviruses

Langat virus infection (bright green) in the tick midgut (black) is shown at six days after infection in this fluorescence image.

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This page was last updated on Thursday, December 26, 2024