News & Updates

The journey of hope to improve the lives of infants born with oxygen deprivation has taken 65 years. Loss of oxygen to the brain may result in death or a lifetime of blindness, mental retardation, or cerebral palsy. In October 2005, Seetha Shankaran and her colleagues in the NICHD Neonatal Research Network reported that lowering a newborn’s body temperature a few degrees could reduce the likelihood of death or disability associated with depleted oxygen.

Every day, physicians and new parents must struggle with the type of care to provide extremely low birthweight infants, the smallest, most delicate category of preterm infants. These infants are born in the 22nd through the 25th week of pregnancy—far earlier than the 40 weeks of a full term pregnancy. Most die soon after birth. Although some survive and reach adulthood unaffected, others experience some degree of life-long disability.

The images depict a membrane protein in a cellular organelle known as a lysosome. The image on the right shows a conventional fluorescent image of a portion of the lyososome, whereas the image on the left shows the corresponding PALM image in the region outlined.

A recent study provides evidence that autism affects the functioning of virtually the entire brain, and is not limited to the brain areas involved with social interactions, communication behaviors, and reasoning abilities, as had been previously thought. The study, conducted by scientists in a research network supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that autism also affects a broad array of skills and abilities, including those involved with sensory perception, movement, and memory.

A large study funded by the National Institutes of Health today provided the clearest picture yet of the prevalence in the U.S. population of mutations in two genes associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Researchers at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus, the National Institutes of Health, and Florida State University have developed and applied a new light microscopy technique that will allow them to determine the arrangement of proteins that make up the individual organelles, or structures, within a cell.

Interview with Duane Alexander on the Report on America's Children, 2006.

Two scientists at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Develpment (NICHD), John Robbins, MD, and Rachel Schneerson, MD, will receive the World Health Organization Children's Vaccine Initiative Pasteur Award for Recent Contributions in Vaccine Development for the landmark development of a polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccine for Hemophilus influenzae type b (Hib).

Contrary to prevailing medical opinion, taking high doses of calcium during pregnancy does not prevent preeclampsia in women who do not have any risk factors for the disease, according to the largest, most comprehensive clinical trial of its kind to date.

The federal government's yearly statistical report on the well-being of our Nation's children shows that the adolescent birth rate fell to the lowest level ever recorded.

Researchers have found in two studies that autism may involve a lack of connections and coordination in separate areas of the brain.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered that a rare tumor of the adrenal glands appears to result from a genetic deficiency of an important enzyme. The enzyme is one of a class of enzymes involved in halting a cell's response to hormones and appears to stop cells from dividing.

Children and adolescents who are overweight are more likely than their normal weight counterparts to suffer bone fractures and have joint and muscle pains, according to a study conducted at the National Institutes of Health.

A new after-school program helps kids interpret the numerous messages they receive every day to make healthier choices about food and physical activity. The materials, available free on the Web, were developed by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

By performing two surgical procedures during the same operation, researchers in an NIH network reduced by half the incidence of urinary incontinence in women with a condition known as pelvic organ prolapse.

Two risk factors that place males at greater risk for heart disease than women appear to be influenced by genes on the X chromosome, report researchers at the NIH and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. The finding appears in a Research Letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Electrical impulses foster myelination, the insulation process that speeds communication among brain cells, report researchers at two institutes of the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers in an NIH network have found that premature infants given a common class of non-prescription drugs used to treat acid reflux are slightly more likely to develop a potentially fatal bowel disorder than are infants who are not treated with the drugs.

The number of infants who die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, increases in the cold winter months, according to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), one of the National Institutes of Health.

By the time they reach early adulthood, a large proportion of American youth have begun the poor practices contributing to three leading causes of preventable death in the United States: smoking, overweight and obesity, and alcohol abuse. This finding is according to an NIH-funded analysis of the most comprehensive survey of adolescent health behavior undertaken to date.