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NIH Press Releases

• Larger Labs Report Kidney Function Routinely
   Labs that conduct the highest number of routine blood tests are more likely than others to report estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), an important measure of kidney function that can identify early kidney disease, according to a survey funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The work is reported in the October issue of the "American Journal of Kidney Diseases."
• NIH Scientists Discover Crucial Control in Long-Lasting Immunity
   National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists have identified a protein that plays matchmaker between two key types of white blood cells, T and B cells, enabling them to interact in a way that is crucial to establishing long-lasting immunity after an infection.
• Jack Killen, M.D., Named Deputy Director of NCCAM
   John (Jack) Killen, Jr., M.D. was recently appointed Deputy Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
• Stellar Scientists, Author to Take Part in NIDCD's 20th Anniversary Symposium
   The scientific and human sides of communication and communication disorders will be featured on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008, when the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), one of the National Institutes of Health, holds a symposium to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The symposium will take place from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Natcher Conference Center, on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md. It will highlight accomplishments of NIDCD research over the past two decades as well as the perspectives and talents of people who have a personal connection with a communication disorder. Roughly one in six people in this country will experience a communication disorder in his or her life.
• NIAID Awards Contracts to Search for Protein Markers of Disease
   The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded two five-year contracts to establish Clinical Proteomics Centers for Infectious Diseases and Biodefense. The contracts were awarded to the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, and to the Canadian firm Caprion Proteomics, Montreal. Researchers at the centers will analyze human blood and other tissue samples from completed or ongoing clinical studies with the aim of discovering proteins that could serve as biomarkers of infectious disease..
• New Systems Biology Awards Enable Detailed Study of Microbes
   The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will award five-year contracts estimated to be up to $68.7 million to establish programs in Systems Biology for Infectious Disease Research at four research institutions. Scientists at each facility will apply novel techniques to study diseases that include severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), tuberculosis and influenza.
• New Data Resource to Advance Computer-Aided Drug Design
   The University of Michigan will lead the effort to expand and enhance the molecular data needed to develop computer programs that more accurately predict potential drug candidates. The data will be housed in a Web-based resource that the scientific community and others interested in this information can access for free. The resource is estimated to receive up to $5 million over five years from NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).
• Annual Report Targets Chronic Kidney Disease in the United States
   A 30 percent increase in chronic kidney disease over the past decade has prompted the U.S. Renal Data System (USRDS) to issue for the first time a separate report documenting the magnitude of the disease, which affects an estimated 27 million Americans and accounts for more than 24 percent of Medicare costs. The USRDS is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
• New NIH Policy to Fund Meritorious Science Earlier
   The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a new policy today that will enhance success rates of new and resubmitted applications by decreasing the number of allowed grant application resubmissions from two to one.
• NIH Grantees Win 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the Discovery and Development of the Green Fluorescent Protein, GFP
   The 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry is shared by two NIH grantees, Martin Chalfie, Ph.D., of Columbia University and Roger Y. Tsien, Ph.D., of the University of California at San Diego.
• Scientists Decode Genome of Parasite that Causes Relapsing Malaria
   Scientists have deciphered the complete genetic sequence of the parasite Plasmodium vivax, the leading cause of relapsing malaria, and compared it with the genomes of other species of malaria parasites. The findings shed light on distinctive genetic features of P. vivax, and may lead to new tools to prevent and treat P. vivax malaria. Results of the study, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), appear in the Oct. 9 issue of "Nature".
• Statement of Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health on National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, October 15, 2008
   The HIV infection rate for Latinos in this country -- 29.3 new cases per 100,000 people in 2006 -- is nearly three times higher than for whites. Since the epidemic began, an estimated 80,690 Latinos with AIDS in the United States have died. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), joins the Latino community in mourning those who have succumbed to this terrible disease.
• Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., NIH Director, Announces New NIH CIO
   Bethesda, Maryland October 7, 2008 — Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is pleased to announce the appointment of John F. "Jack" Jones, Ph.D., as NIH Chief Information Officer (CIO), effective June 22, 2008.
• Human Microbiome Project Awards Funds for Technology Development, Data Analysis and Ethical Research
   The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced the first awards for its Human Microbiome Project, which will lay a foundation for efforts to explore how complex communities of microbes interact with the human body to influence health and disease. The funding, estimated to be up to approximately $21.2 million, will support the development of innovative technologies and computational tools, coordination of data analysis, and an examination of some of the ethical, legal and social implications of human microbiome research.
• NIAID Announces 25 New Awards to Develop Radiation Countermeasures
   The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded 25 new grants to develop new and better diagnostics and treatments for radiation exposure after a nuclear attack. Several of these grants were awarded under Project Bioshield Authority, legislation that enables NIAID within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to use a rapid award process to help stimulate research on medical countermeasures against chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) threats.
• Anti-Cancer Drug Prevents, Reverses Cardiovascular Damage in Mouse Model of Premature Aging Disorder
   An experimental anti-cancer drug can prevent -- and even reverse -- potentially fatal cardiovascular damage in a mouse model of progeria, a rare genetic disorder that causes the mostdramatic form of human premature aging, National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers reported today.
• Noted Geriatrician Named Aging Institute Deputy Director
   Marie A. Bernard, M.D., a noted geriatrician and educator from the University of Oklahoma, has been named deputy director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), effective Oct. 12, 2008. Bernard brings exceptional skills and training as a physician, educator, administrator and investigator to the position at NIA, where she will take a major leadership role in directing the nation’s research program on aging and on age-related cognitive change.
• NIH Scientists Identify Link Between Brain Systems Implicated in Schizophrenia
   Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have deciphered the complex relationship between three distinct brain circuits implicated in schizophrenia. The researchers determined that one brain circuit acts through an intermediary brain circuit. The intermediary circuit acts like a volume control knob, turning up the electrical activity of still another brain circuit, or turning it down. The finding suggests that schizophrenia could result from a malfunction anywhere in the link between these three brain circuits.
• NIH Launches New Web Site for Parents on Medical Research Studies for Children
   A new Web site from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), "Children and Clinical Studies" (www.ChildrenAndClinicalStudies.nhlbi.nih.gov), offers parents and health care providers an insider's guide to children's medical research.
• Scientists Identify Gene Variant Involved in Isolated Cleft Lip
   About 20 percent of isolated cleft lip, one of the world’s most common birth defects, may be due to a one-letter difference in the DNA sequence of a gene involved in facial development, researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health report.
• NIH's National Children's Study Enters Next Phase
   The National Institutes of Health announced today that its comprehensive study to examine the effect of genes and the environment on children's health had entered the next phase of operations. At a briefing on the latest developments in the National Children's Study, NIH officials named the study centers funded for 2008.
• DNA of Good Bacteria Drives Intestinal Response to Infection
   A new study shows that the DNA of so-called "good bacteria" that normally live in the intestines may help defend the body against infection. The findings, available October 2 online in the journal Immunity, are reported by Yasmine Belkaid, Ph.D., and her colleagues in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
• Millisecond Brain Signals Predict Response to Fast-Acting Antidepressant
   In the new study at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, depressed patients showed increasing activity in a mood-regulating hub near the front of the brain while viewing flashing frightful faces -- the more the increase, the better their response to an experimental fast-acting medication called ketamine.
• NIDCD Launches Campaign to Protect the Hearing of Tweens
   A new campaign to help parents of 8- to 12-year-olds teach their children how to avoid hearing loss from overexposure to loud noise was launched today by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health.
• NCI Launches First-Ever Study to Determine if Biomarkers Can Help Guide Treatment for Lung Cancer
   This study, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, is called MARVEL (Marker Validation for Erlotinib in Lung Cancer) and will attempt to definitively establish the future value of selecting patients for treatment based on the presence or absence of EGFR activation.

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