News Releases from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
There is growing concern that military personnel returning
from Iraq and Afghanistan are experiencing a range of difficulties, including
traumatic brain injury (TBI), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
depression, anxiety, and alcohol and drug abuse.
New research in mice and five independent collections of human
breast tumors has enabled National Cancer Institute (NCI) scientists
to confirm that genes for factors contributing to susceptibility for
breast cancer metastasis can be inherited.
A team of scientists has discovered a new syndrome associated
with severe congenital neutropenia (SCN), a rare disorder in which children
lack sufficient infection-fighting white cells, and identified the genetic
cause of the syndrome: mutations in the gene Glucose-6-phosphatase, catalytic
subunit 3 (G6PC3).
A new online tool for calculating colorectal cancer risk in
men and women age 50 or older was launched today, based on a new risk-assessment
model developed by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI),
part of the National Institutes of Health.
Twelve NIH-supported researchers have been awarded the nation"s
highest honor for scientists at the outset of their professional careers.
Ten NIH grantees and two intramural NIH scientists were selected by the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to receive the prestigious
2007 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
Alfuzosin, a drug commonly prescribed for men with chronic
prostatitis, a painful disorder of the prostate and surrounding pelvic
area, failed to significantly reduce symptoms in recently diagnosed men
who had not been previously treated with this drug, according to a clinical
trial sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and
Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The study is to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Cancer researchers have reported the development of a novel
method for delivering a therapeutic gene specifically to the blood vessels
of tumors in mice. Once delivered, the gene produces a protein that damages
the blood vessels and disrupts the blood flow to tumors but not to the
surrounding tissue. These results obtained with this experimental model
are encouraging, because the researchers" method may be safer and
cause fewer side effects than previously used methods for delivering
the protein to tumors. The study, led by researchers at the National
Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, appeared
in the January 1, 2009, issue of Cancer.
As many as three scientists will receive up to $500,000 each
year for five years for potentially groundbreaking approaches to the
prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in drug abusers. The National Institute
on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), created the Avant-Garde Award to stimulate high-impact research
into the link between drug abuse and HIV/AIDS.
Anne L. Coleman, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed chair of
the National Eye Health Education Program (NEHEP) Planning Committee.
Dr. Coleman, who is professor of Ophthalmology and Epidemiology/Public
Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, also serves as director
of the Center for Eye Epidemiology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute.
The National Institutes of Health is pleased to present this
eighth annual free training opportunity to help develop journalists'
ability to critically evaluate and report on medical research.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the
National Institutes of Health has expanded its collection of genetic
and clinical data first made freely available to researchers worldwide
last year, to include clinical and genetic information collected from
three asthma research networks.