News & Updates

A long-term grantee of the National Institutes of Health has been awarded the International Prize for Biology from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Prenatal steroids--given to pregnant women at risk for giving birth prematurely--appear to improve survival and limit brain injury among infants born as early as the 23rd week of pregnancy, according to a study by a National Institutes of Health research network.

The NICHD is conducting a national search for an Associate Director for Extramural Research. This position offers a unique and exciting opportunity for an extremely capable individual to develop and implement an overall vision for the Institute's extramural research activities, which include more than 3,100 projects and involve 130 staff members.

The NICHD continues to advance understanding of the effects of HIV/AIDS on infants, children, young people, women, and families.

On November 14, 2011, NICHD Director Alan Guttmacher, M.D., joined several other NIH Institute Directors in discussing NIH neuroscience research during the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C. Dr. Guttmacher highlighted some of the exciting neuroscience findings that NICHD researchers presented at the meeting.

Toddlers receiving anti-HIV drugs have higher cholesterol levels, on average, than do their peers who do not have HIV, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

A training program for high school girls co-founded by longtime NIH grantee Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D., will receive a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, the White House announced in mid-November.

On this World Pneumonia Day, it is important to keep in mind that a major impediment stands in the way of global efforts to prevent childhood pneumonia.

Since the Back to Sleep campaign began in 1994, the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) rate in the United States has decreased by more than 50 percent. This decrease occurred not only in the overall U.S. SIDS rate, but also in the SIDS rates for different racial/ethnic groups. The decrease is more than just a number—it represents thousands of infant lives.

Programs that grant privileges to new drivers in phases--known as graduated licensing programs--dramatically reduce the rate of teen driver fatal crashes, according to three studies funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Regardless of high or low overall scores on an IQ test, children with dyslexia show similar patterns of brain activity, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health. The results call into question the discrepancy model--the practice of classifying a child as dyslexic on the basis of a lag between reading ability and overall IQ scores.

Researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health are undertaking a preliminary study to identify the early origins of heart disease among African-Americans. The new feasibility study will enroll children and grand children of participants taking part in the largest study of heart disease risk factors among African-American adults, the Jackson Heart Study (JHS), in Jackson, Miss.

Children who start elementary school with difficulty associating small exact quantities of items with the printed numerals that represent those quantities are more likely to develop a math-related learning disability than are their peers, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Newly licensed teen drivers have higher crash rates than do older drivers and the teens are much more likely to engage in risky maneuvers that increase the gravitational force on their vehicles, reported a team of scientists from the NIH and other institutions.

An anti-HIV drug also discovered to stop the spread of the genital herpes virus does so by disabling a key DNA enzyme of the herpes virus, according to findings by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

Representatives of the agencies in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with a focus on infant health and safety today expressed their support for the new infant safe sleep recommendations issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Midway through SIDS Awareness Month and in the midst of its annual conference, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released updated recommendations for promoting infant safe sleep.

The World Health Organization cites indoor air pollution from cooking fires and stoves as the leading cause of environmental death in the world today.

An international effort to replace smoky, inefficient household stoves that people commonly use in lower and middle income countries with clean, affordable, fuel efficient stoves could save nearly 2 million lives each year, according to experts from the National Institutes of Health.

The National Institutes of Health has joined with organizations interested in Down syndrome to form a consortium that will foster the exchange of information on biomedical and biobehavioral research on the chromosomal condition.