News

Scientists funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have developed a new mouse model for Rett syndrome - a heartbreaking disorder which gradually robs apparently healthy infants of their language, mental functioning, and ability to interact with others.

A new technology that allows physicians and researchers to make detailed, three-dimensional maps of nerve pathways in the brain, heart muscle fibers, and other soft tissues has been licensed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

During the 1990's, the pattern of early infections among very low birth weight (VLBW) infants changed significantly, according to a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)- funded study that appears in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Scientists at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the University of South Florida, Tampa, have come one step closer to identifying the cause of uterine fibroids - a condition that affects up to 70 percent of all reproductive age women and can lead to heavy menstrual bleeding, pain, and in some cases, infertility.

Children in America are less likely to die during infancy than they were in previous years, less likely to smoke in 8th or 10th grade, and less likely to give birth during adolescence, according to the 6th annual report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2002.

Researchers funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have come one step closer to identifying one of the causes of previously unexplained mental retardation.

Women between the ages of 35 and 64 who took oral contraceptives at some point in their lives are no more likely to develop breast cancer than are other women the same age, according to findings from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Women's Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences Study (Women's CARE).

Contrary to some earlier studies, a new study funded in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) found that men who undergo vasectomies are no more likely to develop prostate cancer than are men who do not.

Few of the women who undergo tubal sterilization or whose husbands undergo vasectomy later go on to regret either procedure, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A minor change in a cell protein impairs the ability of a key type of immune cell to marshal the body's defenses against disease, according to a study by researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

A new study found no association between the use of an anti-HIV treatment that uses a combination of drugs during pregnancy and an increased risk of such birth complications as premature delivery, stillbirth, and low Apgar scores.

Irregular menstrual periods in young women may be a warning sign of a hormonal shortage that could lead to osteoporosis, according to a preliminary study by researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Teens are more likely to choose friends from within their own racial group in moderately racially mixed schools, with this likelihood greatest in schools where diversity is moderately high, according to an analysis of information from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's (NICHD) Adolescent Health Study.

Researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have come one step closer to understanding how experimental, memory-enhancing drugs affect the brain on a molecular level.

Fertility researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have discovered a gene present in the human egg that may be essential for early embryo development.

Full-term infants who are born small score an average of 11 points higher on IQ tests if they are exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life compared to those who are given formula or solids early on, according to findings published in the March Acta Paediatrica.

Many obese children and adolescents have impaired glucose tolerance, a condition that often appears before the development of type 2 diabetes, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The anti-diabetes drug metformin appears to reduce the likelihood of early miscarriage in women with a common form of female infertility, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Scientists at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the biologics firm Nabi have developed the first vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus, a major cause of infection and death among hospital patients.

A panel convened by the National Institutes of Health issued recommendations to help physicians evaluate a particular class of tumors of the adrenal glands and determine which should be removed and which should be left alone.