National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Study uses Botox to find new wrinkle in brain communication
May 2, 2013 2:36 pm | News | Comments
National Institutes of Health researchers have used the popular anti-wrinkle agent Botox to discover a new and important role for a group of molecules that nerve cells use to quickly send messages. This novel role for the molecules, called SNARES, may be a missing piece that scientists have been searching for to fully understand how brain cells communicate under normal and disease conditions.
Study uses Botox to find new wrinkle in brain communication
May 2, 2013 2:36 pm | News | Comments
National Institutes of Health researchers have used the popular anti-wrinkle agent...
Answering Life's Great Questions, Systematically
December 10, 2010 6:27 am | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | Comments
Not resting after a career full of achievement, Richard D. Smith is leading the charge toward...
Weapons testing data determines brain makes new neurons into adulthood
June 10, 2013 8:36 am | News | CommentsUsing data derived from nuclear weapons testing of the 1950s and '60s, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have found that a small portion of the human brain involved in memory makes new neurons well into adulthood. The research may have profound impacts on human behavior and mental health.
New look at cell membrane reveals surprising organization
January 28, 2013 3:22 pm | News | CommentsSight would dramatically alter a blind man's understanding of an elephant, according to the old story. Now, a look directly at a cell surface is changing our understanding of cell membrane organization. Using a completely new approach to imaging cell membranes, a study by researchers from the University of Illinois, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the National Institutes of Health revealed some surprising relationships among molecules within cell membranes.
In-sync brain waves hold memory of objects just seen
November 5, 2012 11:38 am | News | CommentsThe brain holds in mind what has just been seen by synchronizing brain waves in a working memory circuit, an animal study supported by the National Institutes of Health suggests. The more in-sync such electrical signals of neurons were in two key hubs of the circuit, the more those cells held the short-term memory of a just-seen object.
NIH grant to advance brain surgery robot development
October 19, 2012 1:00 pm | News | CommentsA research team from the University of Maryland has been awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue developing a small robot that could one day be a huge aid to neurosurgeons in removing difficult-to-reach brain tumors.
Gene sleuths stop superbug that killed six
August 27, 2012 3:36 am | by Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer | News | CommentsOver six frightening months, a deadly germ untreatable by most antibiotics spread in the nation's leading research hospital. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health locked down patients, cleaned with bleach, even ripped out plumbing—and still the germ persisted. It took gene detectives teasing apart the bacteria's DNA to solve the germ's wily spread, a CSI-like saga with lessons for hospitals everywhere as they struggle to contain the growing threat of superbugs.
DARPA, NIH to fund 'human body-on-a-chip' research
July 25, 2012 3:24 am | News | CommentsResearchers in the Department of Biological Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology will receive up to $32 million over the next five years from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Institutes of Health to develop a technology platform that will mimic human physiological systems in the laboratory, using an array of integrated, interchangeable engineered human tissue constructs.
Microscope looks into cells of living fish
May 16, 2012 6:32 am | News | CommentsMicroscopes provide valuable insights in the structure and dynamics of cells, in particular when the latter remain in their natural environment. This is difficult to do, but a team of researchers in Germany and the U.S. have now developed a new method to visualize cell structures of an eighth of a micrometer in size in living fish larvae.
Findings awaken age-old anesthesia question
March 22, 2012 7:01 am | News | CommentsWhy does inhaling anesthetics cause unconsciousness? New insights into this century-and-a-half-old question may spring from research performed at NIST. Scientists from NIST and the National Institutes of Health have found hints that anesthesia may affect the organization of fat molecules, or lipids, in a cell's outer membrane—potentially altering the ability to send signals along nerve cell membranes.
Brain imaging study finds evidence of basis for caregiving impulse
March 16, 2012 5:12 am | News | CommentsDistinct 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.
Big, bad bacterium is an 'iron pirate'
February 21, 2012 3:53 am | News | CommentsLife inside the human body sometimes looks like life on the high seas in the 1960s, when pirates hijacked foreign vessels in search of precious metals. For Neisseria bacteria, which can cause gonorrhea and meningitis, the booty is not gold or silver but plain old iron. Until recently, scientists did not understand how these bacterial snatch iron from healthy human cells, where a protein called transferrin bind the metal in a molecular bear hug.
‘Bubblegram’ imaging reveals inner working of viruses
January 12, 2012 10:49 am | News | CommentsDespite cryo-electron microscopy’s ability to resolve viruses, scientists have been unable to clearly visualize structures inside of viruses because radiation is used to image them. Reserachers at the National Institutes of Health invented a new technique that turns this radiation into an imaging asset.
Nobel history illustrates gap in grants to young scientists
January 11, 2012 3:28 am | News | CommentsA new study by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy illustrates a disconnect between government funding of biomedical research by young investigators and a novel standard by which to judge it: The Nobel Prize.
NIH grant to help MRI scientist seek answers about manganese toxicity
December 1, 2011 8:57 am | News | CommentsPeople exposed to manganese in occupational settings such as welding may not see signs for years that the element is toxic to their nervous systems, but new medical imaging techniques being developed and tested by a Purdue University professor could help reveal toxicity before symptoms appear that indicate irreversible brain damage.
Ultrathin flexible brain implant offers unique look at seizures
November 14, 2011 3:58 am | News | CommentsResearchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a flexible brain implant that could one day be used to treat epileptic seizures. In animal studies, the researchers used the device—a type of electrode array that conforms to the brain's surface—to take an unprecedented look at the brain activity underlying seizures.
Antibody library project could unlock mysteries of human gene function
November 1, 2011 11:10 am | News | CommentsA National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to Los Alamos National Laboratory Bioscience Division could help unravel the gnarly secrets of how many human genes function. With the new NIH Common Fund grant of more than $4 million, researchers led by Andrew Bradbury aim to develop an automated pipeline to generate antibodies against human gene products, without using animals.
NIH acquires LLNL's bioAMS instrument
October 6, 2011 6:25 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently received $3 million from the National Institutes of Health to acquire a new biomedical accelerator mass spectrometry (bioAMS) instrument. The instrument will provide faster analysis for medical and other biological research.
UF-led team awarded more than $6.5 million for oil spill projects
July 8, 2011 6:18 am | News | CommentsThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a University of Florida (UF)-led team more than $6.5 million to study the environmental and psychological effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on communities along the Gulf coasts of Florida and Alabama.
Interagency collaboration aims to bring advanced robotics to all
June 30, 2011 6:41 am | News | CommentsNASA, NIH, NSF and USDA are combining forces to fast-track the development and use of co-robots in the U.S. that work cooperatively with people. A solicitation for proposals for the new National Robotics Initiative (NRI) was recently released along with the establishment of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership. Investments in NRI may reach $50 million in the first year.
Ovarian cancer genome mapped
June 29, 2011 10:14 am | News | CommentsScientists have developed the first comprehensive catalog of the genetic aberrations responsible for an aggressive type of ovarian cancer that accounts for 70% of all ovarian cancer deaths. Hundreds of researchers from more than 80 institutions deciphered the genome structure and gene expression patterns in high-grade serous ovarian adenocarcinomas from almost 500 patients. The result is the most expansive genomic analysis of any cancer to date and a major step toward the personalized treatment of ovarian cancer.
How to square budget cuts, need for aging research
May 16, 2011 1:04 pm | by Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer | News | CommentsIn one of the stark realities of the budget crisis, scientists' chances of winning research dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for any condition have dipped to a new low. According to the Institutes director, Francis Collins, for every six grant applications that NIH receives, five are rejected.
At 10, genomics faces reality
February 15, 2011 8:24 am | by Paul Livingstone | Blogs | CommentsIn February 2001, the journal Science published two scientific papers that, for the first time, described parts of the newly sequenced human genome. Ten years later, the journal has dedicated the month of February to a special series about one of the most celebrated scientific breakthroughs our time, and why it has and hasn't fulfilled its promise of changing medicine.
One war of many, no end in sight
September 13, 2010 5:50 am | by Paul Livigstone | Blogs | CommentsThe numbers are stark but abstract: HIV is still a deadly disease that infects more than 33 million people in and kills than 2 million people each year through its effects. Researchers must not only find a vaccine; they must fight to keep the ball rolling on an effort that could take another 30 years to solve.
