News & Updates

As 2018 winds down, a new slideshow highlights a selection of initiatives, therapies, and scientific advances supported by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

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.

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

Dr. Kathleen Egan and her son David Egan, pioneers of inclusion for people with Down syndrome, share their experiences. Listen.

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.

The severity of birth defects caused by Zika virus infection may be influenced by natural variations in a pregnant woman’s genes for a key enzyme, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

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.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions have deciphered the role of a key protein that the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum uses to obtain nutrients while infecting red blood cells. Their study appears in Nature Microbiology.

A computerized skateboard, a self-motorized toy car, and a robotic prosthetic arm are just a few of the research projects supported by NICHD’s National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research. Listen to the latest podcast.

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

NICHD researchers find that sexual minority men are more likely to have lived in three or more different places in the past year.

A protein found only in mouse embryos and not in adult mice is important for fetal neurodevelopment, according to NICHD researchers.

To reach their adult proportions, bones mature on separate time scales, with the long bones like those in the arms and legs maturing much more slowly than shorter bones, like those in the fingers and toes, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The study results may lead to new insights and potential treatments for disorders in which bones fail to grow normally.

The vacuole, a compartment inside human red blood cells in which malaria parasites reproduce and develop, takes on a distinct spherical shape just minutes before its membrane ruptures, leading to the release of parasites into the blood stream, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

The findings suggest new ways to treat long-term pain without opioids.

Findings from the mouse study offer clues on myelin-related diseases that impair the nervous system in people.

Study yields potential clues to understanding eye disease and blindness in people.

From NICHD patient to registered nurse. Kristal Nemeroff shares her story living with the genetic disorder, Osteogenesis Imperfecta.

NIH study finds higher rates of dissatisfaction with family relationships.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health worked with 15 patients from around the world to uncover a genetic basis of “dripping candle wax” bone disease. The rare disorder, known as melorheostosis, causes excess bone formation that resembles dripping candle wax on x-rays.