News & Updates

A new therapy promises to shorten the recovery time for young people who have suffered a brain injury. It’s called “gist training,” and it involves getting the essence from complex information instead of memorizing facts.

Global health research is an important part of the work of the NICHD. In addition to funding research projects directly, the Institute helps other countries build the research capacity that’s so critical to improving health and saving lives.

Most of the genetic risk for autism comes from versions of genes that are common in the population rather than from rare variants or spontaneous glitches, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have found. Heritability also outweighed other risk factors in this largest study of its kind to date.

Every week seems to bring another story about 3D printing and its potential for creative new applications—from cars to aircraft parts, high-end fashion to astronaut food, and low-cost prosthetic hands to life-saving medical implants and artificial organs.

The child known as the “Mississippi baby”—an infant seemingly cured of HIV that was reported as a case study of a prolonged remission of HIV infection in The New England Journal of Medicine last fall—now has detectable levels of HIV after more than two years of not taking antiretroviral therapy without evidence of virus, according to the pediatric HIV specialist and researchers involved in the case.

American young adults are more racially and ethnically diverse, more likely to graduate from high school, and attend college, and less likely to smoke than previous generations, according to a report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. However, the young adults have more student debt than generations past, earn less than their counterparts in the year 2000, and more than 1 in 5 are obese, the report says.

Since 2011, the NICHD has been working with the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority, Inc. to lead the Asthma Prevention and Management Initiative, a series of nationwide asthma education, training, and outreach activities. The program leverages NIH’s scientific expertise and AKA’s extensive network of chapters to teach families across the country about proper management of childhood asthma.

The drug letrozole appears to be more effective than the standard drug clomiphene for helping women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) to achieve pregnancy, according to a large study from a research network supported by the National Institutes of Health.

A new study has found that it’s not so cool to have been cool after all. When they reached adulthood, a sample of formerly cool kids were much more likely than their uncool peers to have relationship problems, major problems with alcohol and substance use, and even to have run afoul of the law.

During June—Men’s Health Month—the NICHD focused on encouraging men to make their health a priority.

Funds are available to support meritorious applications of high general programmatic significance or that focus on the recently announced high priority topics identified by the NICHD Vision process.

We spoke with Constantine Stratakis, M.D., D.Med.Sc., Director of the NICHD's Division of Intramural Research, who has found variations in a gene (PDE11A) that appear to increase prostate cancer risk.

Contraception allows couples to prevent pregnancy or better control the timing of when they conceive. The NICHD’s Contraceptive Discovery and Development Branch (CDDB) supports research on new contraceptive methods, for women and for men, to meet the diverse needs of individuals throughout their reproductive lives.

This infographic has important tips to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and other sleep-related causes of infant death.

On average, men die about five years earlier than women and have higher mortality rates from some cancers and heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It’s important, then, that men talk to their health care providers about what types of preventive medical tests and activities they need to stay healthy.

A new study found that bullying among students in grades six through ten declined significantly between 1998 and 2010. Fighting among students also declined, although less dramatically.

Researchers have found that hormone replacement therapy in young women with primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) led to increases in their bone mineral density, restoring levels to normal.

Head Start is a program which provides low-income children with preschool education, health care, and nutrition services. A recent analysis of a national study on Head Start shows that 1 year of the program improves children’s math, literacy, and vocabulary skills.

Throughout May, the NICHD highlighted important information about women’s health, particularly women’s health research. These efforts coincided in part with National Women’s Health Week, from May 11 to 17.

Lisa M. Halvorson, M.D., has been named the new Chief of the Gynecologic Health and Disease Branch (GHDB), effective June 15, 2014, announced Dr. Catherine Spong, M.D., Director of the Division of Extramural Research.