News

The latest in a series of studies on secretin has failed to show that giving the digestive hormone to children with autism alleviates symptoms of the disorder, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

A series of fact sheets describing the latest research findings on autism is now available from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

In collaboration with their European colleagues, scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have come one step closer to determining the genetic basis for autism.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have identified a gene that may predispose people to developing autism.

The first of a number of studies sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has shown that treatment with a synthetic version of the hormone secretin offered no more benefit for children with autism than did treatment with a placebo.

Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Stanford University have discovered the gene for Rett syndrome, a heartbreaking disorder which gradually robs healthy infant girls of their language, mental functioning, and ability to interact with others.

Researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have discovered a gene that controls the development of the hippocampus, a brain structure crucial for learning and memory.

Secretin is a polypeptide neurotransmitter (chemical messenger), one of the hormones that controls digestion.