News & Updates

Pregnant women who are assaulted by an intimate partner are at increased risk of giving birth to infants of reduced weight, according to a population-level analysis of domestic violence supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have converted stem cells from the human endometrium into insulin-producing cells and transplanted them into mice to control the animals' diabetes.

Preschoolers with a strong ability to estimate quantities are more likely to score higher on tests of basic number skills than are their peers with less ability to estimate quantities, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Sumner J. Yaffe, M.D., a former center director at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, has passed away.

NIH-funded scientists have developed a strain of mice with a built-in off switch that can selectively shut down the animals' serotonin-producing cells, which make up a brain network controlling breathing, temperature regulation, and mood. The switch controls only the serotonin-producing cells, and does not affect any other cells in the animal's brains or bodies.

Researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health have developed a new statistical technique to forecast changes in fertility rates. The new method mathematically compensates for uncertainty and is expected to allow governments to plan more reliably for the infrastructure and social services needed to accommodate large-scale population changes.

At fertilization, a massive release of the metal zinc appears to set the fertilized egg cell on the path to dividing and growing into an embryo, according to the results of animal studies supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The National Institutes of Health has undertaken a new program to discover, develop and distribute measures of nutritional status. The Biomarkers of Nutrition for Development (BOND) Program brings together experts in the field of nutrition to provide advice to researchers, clinicians, program- and policymakers, on the role of food and nutrition in health promotion and disease prevention.

Children who attended an intensive preschool and family support program attained higher educational levels, were more likely to be employed, and less likely to have problems with the legal system than were peers who did not attend the program, according to a study funded by the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

On June 28th, new mandatory safety standards for infant cribs will take effect, helping to ensure a safe sleep environment for infants in the United States.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered that the innate ability to estimate quantities is impaired in children who have a math learning disability.

Roughly 19 percent of young adults may have high blood pressure, according to an analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Infants born in the 37th or 38th week of pregnancy have a higher risk of dying before age 1 than do infants born between 39 and 40 weeks, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the March of Dimes.

An inexpensive instructional program to teach routine newborn care skills to midwives in Zambia resulted in a substantial reduction in the death rate of infants in the first week of life, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Recently, scientists in an NIH study reported that a surgical procedure to repair a common birth defect of the spine, if undertaken while a baby is still in the uterus, greatly reduces the need to divert, or shunt, fluid away from the brain, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health and four research institutions. The fetal surgical procedure also increases the chances that a child will be able to walk without crutches or other devices.

Among the smallest preterm infants, those born as triplets are at greater risk than single born infants or twins of dying or developing a disability before their second birthday, according a study by a research network of the National Institutes of Health.

Pregnant women who are unaware that they have HIV miss the chance for drug treatment that can benefit not only their own health, but could also prevent them from transmitting the virus to their infants. When HIV is not diagnosed until women go into labor, their infants are usually treated soon after birth with the anti HIV drug zidovudine (ZDV), to prevent the infants from becoming infected with the virus.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have identified a key step in the establishment of a pregnancy. Their discovery shows how the hormone progesterone suppresses the growth of the uterus's lining so that a fertilized egg can implant in the uterus.

A surgical procedure to repair a common birth defect of the spine, if undertaken while a baby is still in the uterus, greatly reduces the need to divert, or shunt, fluid away from the brain, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health and four research institutions.

An early education program for children from low-income families is estimated to generate $4 to $11 of economic benefits over a child's lifetime for every dollar spent initially on the program, according to a cost-benefit analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health.