News & Updates

Newborns who undergo whole body cooling after oxygen deprivation—proven to prevent brain damage and death—have a high risk of seizures during the rewarming phase of the treatment, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings indicate that infants’ brain waves should be continuously monitored for seizures during rewarming, which may otherwise go undetected and lead to disability or death.

Read about a selection of DIR’s latest scientific advances in basic, clinical, and population-based research.

Genetic testing of the siblings of newborns found to have mutations in any one of 11 genes most commonly associated with childhood-onset cancers could reduce deaths from these rare cancers by about 50%, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

NIH-funded study explains how intravenous immune globulin helps children with rare COVID condition.

The architecture of the nuclear pore is shaped by the cellular environment, according to a new NIH-supported study.

Findings on Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) may inform updates to clinical practice guidelines.

Regular doses of the hormone oxytocin do not appear to overcome deficits in social functioning among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings contradict earlier reports that indicated the hormone could alleviate the difficulties in social functioning characteristic of ASD. Oxytocin is associated with empathy and social bonding.

Episodes of maternal stress or depression during pregnancy are associated with chemical modifications to placental genes, according to a study by researchers from the National Institutes of Health. The modifications involve DNA methylation—binding of compounds known as methyl groups to DNA—which can alter a gene’s activity. Some of the methylation changes associated with maternal depression occurred near genes involved in brain development, suggesting that maternal depression in pregnancy could have long-term implications for the mental development of the child.

Drs. Diana W. Bianchi and Bill Riley co-write a blog for Children’s Health Day on October 4, 2021.

A new website offers reproductive health researchers a way to search for genes, proteins, and other molecules that could provide the basis for studies to develop new contraceptive methods and infertility treatments. The Contraceptive Infertility Target Database (CITDBase) is a free public resource developed by the Contraceptive Development Program in the NICHD’s Division of Population Health Research.

NIH will award $38.5 million over five years to the Developmental Genotype-Tissue Expression (dGTEx) project, which aims to build a widely available tissue bank and database with information about human developmental gene expression in many types of tissues from children for use in basic and clinical research.

Children who were given juice before they were 6 months old drank more juice and soda, and less water, by early and mid-childhood, on average, than children first given juice at or after 12 months, according to a study conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The findings support a theory that giving children sweet foods and drinks at an early age fosters a preference for sweet tastes that persists into childhood, increasing the risk for childhood weight gain and tooth cavities.

Findings from NICHD-supported study may aid special education classes across the country.

No serious adverse events were reported by 180 breastfeeding women receiving either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, either among themselves or in their infants, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. For the mothers, adverse events included muscle and body aches, fever and vomiting, pain, redness, swelling, or itching at the injection site.

NIH-supported program reduces maternal deaths, complications in rural Guatemalan communities.

NICHD Director Dr. Diana W. Bianchi explains how menstruation provides insights into overall health status and encourages clinical researchers to routinely collect menstrual cycle data.

Receiving detailed genomic information on their newborn’s potential risks for childhood and adult diseases does not appear to cause distress or anxiety among parents, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings could help to allay concerns that routinely sequencing newborn genomes to obtain information about their long-term health prospects may be too stressful for families.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, American children may have adopted a range of behaviors that increase their risk for obesity, an NIH-funded study suggests. Compared to before the pandemic, children 7- to 12-years old increased their sedentary behavior, screen time, and food intake, while reducing their level of physical activity and adopting a later sleep schedule—all behaviors that increase obesity risk.

NIH has awarded one-year supplemental grants to five institutions to explore potential links between COVID-19 vaccination and menstrual changes.

Working-age immigrant men—particularly Latinos—were more likely to die of COVID-19 than their native-born counterparts, according to a study of Minnesota death records funded by the National Institutes of Health. Because COVID-19 data on immigration status is not collected on a national level, the findings provide insights into how COVID-19 mortality trends differ between U.S.- and foreign-born residents.