News

R. Douglas Fields, Ph.D., chief of NICHD’s section on Nervous System Development and Plasticity has been named a distinguished Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The Trans-NIH Fragile X Coordinating Committee, led by NICHD, recently published the final NIH Strategic Research Plan on FMR1-Associated Conditions.

A study from federal researchers shows that information about ways to reduce the risk of sleep-related infant deaths is not reaching all caregivers or healthcare providers.

NICHD researcher Mary Dasso, Ph.D., considers herself to have been lucky at many points in her career. But luck alone cannot account for her success as a principal investigator and program leader. Read about her career over the decades.

Acceptance and support from communities and families appear to lessen the toll of mental health conditions experienced by former child soldiers transitioning to early adulthood, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

NIH invites scientists, advocacy and family groups, representatives from federal and local agencies, and others to provide comments and suggestions on its draft research plan on Fragile X syndrome and associated conditions.

Scientists and engineers are pioneering new tools and methods to advance healthcare in revolutionary ways. Learn about emerging technologies funded by NICHD.

NICHD was established more than 50 years ago to help understand maternal health and improve pregnancy outcomes. These selected advances highlight NICHD’s contributions to advancing the health and well-being of pregnant women, mothers, and families everywhere.

NIH invites comments on its Plan of Rehabilitation Research to help update the plan.

NICHD’s Amir Gandjbakhche, Ph.D., leads a team that is pioneering the use of portable imaging technology to study human development and health conditions, including brain injuries and disorders.

A 5-minute delay in clamping the umbilical cord after birth may benefit an infant’s developing brain, suggests a small study funded by the National Institutes of Health. By 4 months of age, the brains of infants in the study who underwent delayed clamping had more myelin, a brain-insulating material, compared to those whose cords were clamped within 20 seconds.

Seventy-seven year old NICHD researcher Keiko Ozato, Ph.D., started her laboratory in 1981. We caught up with her as she thought about how some early challenges shaped her life and research career.

In 2018, researchers funded by NICHD made significant progress in advancing the health and well-being of infants, children, teenagers, and adults across the United States and around the world.

The initiative seeks to improve treatment and care of infants and children who were exposed to opioids in the womb.

NIH findings in rodents suggest that astrocytes play an important role in how the brain processes information.

The brain’s pineal gland has two kinds of pinealocytes—cells that make melatonin—the hormone that regulates the body’s sleep and wake cycles, according to a rodent study conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The findings have the potential to inform future research on disorders that involve melatonin, such as jet lag and seasonal affective disorder.

NICHD’s mission includes understanding child development and behavior. Check out these scientific advances related to Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Neurons absorb and release water when they relay messages throughout the brain, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. Tracking this water movement with imaging technology may one day provide valuable information on normal brain activity, as well as how injury or disease affect brain function.

New findings in zebrafish help explain how the brain filters information from the environment and may improve our understanding of neurological disorders.