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:
Earlier today the patient who was flown back to the United States from Sierra Leone and admitted to the NIH Clinical Center on September 28 for observation, following a high-risk exposure to Ebola virus infection, was discharged to his home.
A patient with exposure to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone has been transferred from an overseas location and admitted to the NIH Clinical Center for observation and to enroll in a clinical protocol. The patient arrived at the NIH Clinical Center on Sunday, September 28, at approximately 4 p.m. ET.
The National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will receive a top national award for the year’s most outstanding intellectual property licensing deal, for technology transfer of a pioneering, low-cost meningitis vaccine launched in sub-Saharan Africa. The 2014 Deals of Distinction Award will be presented to the two federal agencies and their collaborators by the Licensing Executives Society at the society’s 50th annual meeting, Oct. 5-8 in San Francisco.
NIDA IRP researchers have discovered a unique interaction between a nerve cell in the brain’s ventral tegmental area and the lateral habenula - a pathway implicated in mental health disorders such as addiction and depression. This nerve cell releases both excitatory (glutamate) and inhibitory (GABA) chemicals, contrary to long-established theories assuming release of a single chemical (either glutamate or GABA).
NIH study ties eating in response to food cues to habit-forming region in obese adults
People who are obese may be more susceptible to environmental food cues than their lean counterparts due to differences in brain chemistry that make eating more habitual and less rewarding, according to a National Institutes of Health study published in Molecular Psychiatry.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) will conduct a clinical trial of gabapentin enacarbil as a potential treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD). NIAAA estimates that the six-month trial will begin in the first half of 2015 and will enroll approximately 350 participants. The study will assess the safety and efficacy of gabapentin enacarbil in people who have been diagnosed with AUD. NIAAA is working in partnership with the biopharmaceutical company XenoPort Inc., of Santa Clara, California, which will supply the study drug.
Trial is First in Series of Accelerated Safety Studies of Ebola Vaccines
Initial human testing of an investigational vaccine to prevent Ebola virus disease will begin next week by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Policy’s implementation is key to accelerating biomedical discoveries
The National Institutes of Health has issued a final NIH Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) policy to promote data sharing as a way to speed the translation of data into knowledge, products and procedures that improve health while protecting the privacy of research participants. The final policy was posted in the Federal Register Aug. 26, 2014 and published in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts Aug. 27, 2014.
Enthusiasm for genomics grows with an estimated 3 million D.C. visitors to exhibition
With eye-catching models, interactive displays and engaging elements, the Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code exhibition is going on tour after having completed a 14-month engagement at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington.
An experimental vaccine to prevent the mosquito-borne viral illness chikungunya elicited neutralizing antibodies in all 25 adult volunteers who participated in a recent early-stage clinical trial conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The results are reported in the current issue of The Lancet.