U.S. National Institutes of Health

NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit the http://www.nih.gov.

Submerged solar robots to assess water safety

The loneliness of the solar-powered autonomous underwater vehicle. A new solar-powered underwater robot technology developed for undersea observation and water monitoring will be showcased at a Sept. 16 workshop on leading-edge robotics to be held at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, Va. Long-term deployment of solar-powered autonomous underwater vehicles will allow detection of chemical and biological trends in lakes, rivers, and waterways that may guide the management and improvement of water quality. The SAUVs communicate and network with one another in real time to assess a water body as a whole in measuring how it changes over space and time. Key technologies used in SAUVs include integrated sensor microsystems, pervasive computing, wireless communications, and sensor mobility with robotics.

DNA Comparison Finds Chimps, Humans Pretty Darned Similar

The first comprehensive comparison of the genetic blueprints of humans and chimpanzees shows that our closest living relatives share perfect identity with 96 percent of our DNA sequence, an international research consortium reported today. In a paper published in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal Nature, the Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium, which is supported in part by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), describes its landmark analysis comparing the genome of the chimp (Pan troglodytes) with that of human (Homo sapiens).

Anti-cancer drugs may hold promise for premature aging disorder

In a surprising development, a research team led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has found that a class of experimental anti-cancer drugs also shows promise in laboratory studies for treating a fatal genetic disorder that causes premature aging.

Cognitive Therapy Reduces Repeat Suicide Attempts by Half

Recent suicide attempters treated with cognitive therapy were 50 percent less likely to try to kill themselves again within 18 months than those who did not receive the therapy, report researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. A targeted form of cognitive therapy designed to prevent suicide proved better at lifting depression and feelings of hopelessness than the usual care available in the community, according to researchers.

Combo Therapy Leads to Partial Recovery from Spinal Cord Injury in Rats

Combining partially differentiated stem cells with gene therapy can promote the growth of new “insulation” around nerve fibers in the damaged spinal cords of rats, a new study shows. The treatment, which mimics the activity of two nerve growth factors, also improves the animals’ motor function and electrical conduction from the brain to the leg muscles. The finding may eventually lead to new ways of treating spinal cord injury in humans. The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Hormone/Vaccine Combo May Help Recurrent Prostate Cancer

A new study finds that a cancer vaccine combined with hormone-deprivation therapy can help patients with recurrence of prostate cancer. The results of this clinical trial, led by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, appear in the August 2005 issue of the Journal of Urology.*

HIV Therapy Greatly Extends Life of Key T Cells

Interleukin-2 (IL-2), an immune-boosting drug used experimentally in HIV therapy, greatly increases the lifespan of certain subsets of immune system T cells in some HIV-positive people who respond to this therapy, discovered researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH. A report describing the study, led by the Clinical Center’s Joseph A. Kovacs, M.D., appears online today in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Vitamin E No Protection for Women from Heart Attack, Stroke, Cancer

Not what we thought.Vitamin E supplements do not protect healthy women against heart attacks and stroke, according to new results from the Women’s Health Study, a long-term clinical trial of the effect of vitamin E and aspirin on both the prevention of cardiovascular disease and of cancer. The vitamin E results of the Women’s Health Study are published in the July 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. In addition to the cardiovascular disease findings, the study authors report that there was no effect of vitamin E on total cancer or on the most common cancers in women — breast, lung, and colon cancers.

Program uses brain scans to assess Alzheimer’s risk

Researchers have developed a brain scan-based computer program that quickly and accurately measures metabolic activity in a key region of the brain affected in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Applying the program, they demonstrated that reductions in brain metabolism in healthy individuals were associated with the later development of the memory robbing disease, according to a new study.

FDA approves first stroke-risk blood test

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved today the first blood test designed to help predict a patient’s risk for ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke and one of the nation’s leading causes of long-term disability affecting approximately 700,000 people per year. “This test provides a new tool to help us identify at-risk patients earlier, so we can start therapies in time to prevent a stroke altogether.”

Social behavior encoded in junk DNA?

Just being sociable.A discovery that may someday help to explain human social behavior and disorders such as autism has been made in a species of pudgy rodents. Researchers traced social behavior traits, such as monogamy, to seeming glitches in DNA that determines when and where a gene turns on. The length of these repeating sequences — once dismissed as mere junk DNA — in the gene that codes for a key hormone receptor determined male-female relations and parenting behaviors in a species of voles.

Experimental Shingles Vaccine Proves Effective in Nationwide Study

Not these sorts of shingles, though. A vaccine for them is considered still years away.In one of the largest adult vaccine clinical trials ever, researchers have found that an experimental vaccine against shingles (zoster vaccine) prevented about half of cases of shingles — a painful nerve and skin infection — and dramatically reduced its severity and complications in vaccinated persons who got the disease. The findings appear in the June 2 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

How Disease Bacterium Survives Inside Immune Cell

New research on a bacterium that can survive encounters with specific immune system cells has strengthened scientists’ belief that these plentiful white blood cells, known as neutrophils, dictate whether our immune system will permit or prevent bacterial infections.

Blinding disease, rare kidney disease have genetic link

Alterations in a gene involved in the body’s immune system dramatically increase the likelihood of developing a blinding disease late in life, according to new findings by an international team of scientists. Similar alterations in the same gene were found to be associated with a rare and often fatal kidney disease.