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As the Institute marks its golden anniversary, we look back on the NICHD's early years, its scientific accomplishments, and its future.

In an ongoing clinical trial, a paralyzed woman was able to reach for and sip from a drink on her own – for the first time in nearly 15 years – by using her thoughts to direct a robotic arm. The trial, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, is evaluating the safety and feasibility of an investigational device called the BrainGate neural interface system. This is a type of brain-computer interface (BCI) intended to put robotics and other assistive technology under the brain's control.

On April 17, 2012, the NICHD Director’s Lecture Series will feature Richard M. Greenwald, Ph.D., and his lecture about Biomechanical Basis of Concussion: Monitoring Head Impact in Sports.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1.6 million to 3.8 million sports- and recreation-related concussions occur each year in the United States. Rather than just a bump on the head, a concussion is actually a mild form of traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Thirteen scientists have been appointed to a blue ribbon panel that will review medical rehabilitation research at the National Institutes of Health.

This Spotlight continues to focus on the NCMRR as the Center commemorates its 20th anniversary. The need for the Center and its research programs was clear in 1991, when it was established, and has only grown in the last two decades. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately:

Disabilities—from a disorder, such as spina bifida; a health condition, such as a stroke; or an event, such as a motor vehicle collision—are simply a fact of life. Nearly all of us are affected by disabilities in some way, whether directly, as one of the estimated 54 million people who reported a disability in the United States last year, or indirectly, as a caregiver, family member, or friend of someone with a disability.

The National Institutes of Health has provided approximately $30 million over a five year period to fund a network of centers to advance medical rehabilitation research. The centers provide researchers with access to new technologies and resources.

The vitamin folate appears to promote healing in damaged rat spinal cord tissue by triggering a change in DNA, according to a laboratory study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

In the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind to date, researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have shown that when stroke survivors who've lost function in one arm are given a unique, two-week rehabilitation regimen that involves restraining their functional arm, they show improvements that last for as long as one year post-treatment.