This image may look complicated, but it tells a fairly straightforward tale about basic research: Learning more about basic life processes can pave the way for medical and other advances.
Chlorine bleach has been used as a disinfectant for hundreds of years, but our bodies have been using its active component to help kill invading bacteria for millennia. Details about how bleach kills—and how bacteria can survive the attack—may lead to the development of new drugs.
Springing clocks forward by an hour this Sunday is one example of an activity that can disrupt our daily rhythms. NIH-funded researchers are piecing together the molecular mechanisms of our biological clocks to better understand the intricate relationship among these clocks, daily rhythms and physiology.
New insights into how cancer cells arise and develop into tumors have come from researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Some of them are exploring the process by studying stem cells.
February 12 marks the birth of Charles Darwin, who launched the scientific study of evolution. While his theory laid the groundwork, ongoing studies have deepened our understanding of evolution, including how it relates to health. NIH-funded research has helped answer many questions about evolution, health and medicine. Here’s a sampling.
Imagine a 1950s horror movie monster—a creeping, gluey tangle of gunk that strangles everything around it. That’s what amyloid plaques are like when they form in body tissues. These gooey protein clumps are associated with many chronic and debilitating disorders, and scientists have made enormous strides in understanding how these structures play roles in disease.
In women at high risk for breast cancer, a long-term drug treatment can cut the risk of developing the disease in half. NIH-funded researchers have identified two gene variants that may predict which women are most likely to benefit from this therapy.
A collaborative research network that formed nearly 10 years ago has pioneered the use of computational and mathematical models to prepare for, detect and respond to influenza, pertussis, West Nile disease, dengue fever, cholera and other infectious disease threats. Learn about current research activities.
Antihistamine drugs work by preventing histamine from attaching to H1 receptors. Find out what NIH-funded researchers have learned about these receptors and other medically important proteins.
Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health are studying triglycerides, cholesterol and other fats to learn more about normal and abnormal biology. Chew on these findings the next time you ponder the fate of the fat in a French fry.
An award-winning image that captures a scene from the delicately performed ballet of mitosis will be displayed on an electronic billboard in New York City's Times Square this weekend, April 20-21.
Nature’s designs are giving researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health ideas for new technologies that could help wounds heal, make injections less painful and provide new materials for a variety of purposes.
Even though anesthetics have been used in many procedures for more than 150 years, doctors and scientists still don't know exactly how these medicines work in the body. Researchers funded by the NIH have helped identify and explore different aspects of anesthesia, and here are a few things they’ve learned.
To foster interest in biomedical science, NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences will host an interactive Web chat about the cell on Friday, November 2, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT.
Minutes after you were born, bacteria moved in. Their populations have exploded, diversified and spread in and on your body, including your skin. NIH-funded scientists are learning how and why bacteria colonize particular places, possibly pointing to ways of treating skin and other conditions.
Usually, we think of mold, feces, nitric oxide, hydrogen sulfide and rat poison as rank, toxic or both. But scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health are learning more about the helpful roles these substances can play.
How do cells know when to start copying their DNA? What do the molecules that help control mood look like? Can we improve nature’s medicines with clever, cleaner chemistry? These are just some of the questions answered by basic researchers that could pave the way for a wealth of medical advances.
Cleaner! Faster! Cheaper! is a rallying cry for chemists working to limit the impact of their work on the environment. Here are a few examples of how chemists funded by NIH are going green by improving the chemical processes used to make medicines, plastics and other products.
When our clocks spring forward an hour to daylight savings time on Sunday, the system of biological clocks that control the daily, or circadian, rhythms of the body will need a little time to adjust.
For the first time ever, scientists are using computers and genomic information to predict new uses for existing medicines. A National Institutes of Health-funded computational study analyzed genomic and drug data to predict new uses for medicines that are already on the market.
Dengue fever, tuberculosis and H1N1 influenza are tough competitors to face in a fight. But scientists who study these diseases have a powerful tool at their fingertips: Using computers, they can model how infectious diseases spread and conduct virtual test runs of how different interventions might help. NIH has funded three new projects to aid these efforts.
Most lab rats have to be housed, fed and bred. But not the group Daniel Beard has in mind for his new systems biology center. They'll be virtual. Beard, a computational biologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, is using computer models of rat physiology to study how genes and environmental factors interact to cause disease. He calls his project, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the "Virtual Physiological Rat."
As the heat index rises, one thing remains at zero—the cost of the engaging and informative educational materials produced by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In addition to its award-winning booklets on biological science topics, NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences now offers a range of online products.
A tiny plant called Arabidopsis thaliana just helped scientists unearth new clues about the daily cycles of many organisms, including humans. This is the latest in a long line of research, much of it supported by the National Institutes of Health, that uses plants to solve puzzles in human health.
Despite public health campaigns that explain ways to stop sleeping sickness infection, successful eradication has remained out of reach. That's partly because epidemiologists can't predict where cases will emerge next. Now, efforts by Michigan State University geographer Joseph Messina to map future tsetse fly distribution may help solve this sleeping sickness "mystery."
It’s common knowledge that too much cholesterol and other fats can lead to disease, and that a healthy diet involves watching how much fatty food we eat. However, our bodies need a certain amount of fat to function. Knowing that fats play an important role in many basic functions in the body, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health study them in humans and other organisms to learn more about normal and abnormal biology.
The development of new drugs to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS depends on understanding the basic biology of how the virus infects human cells. For 25 years, researchers supported primarily by NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) have been generating the structures of key viral proteins, revealing important insights into the virus’s mechanisms and, more importantly, its Achilles’ heels.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded six grants totaling approximately $12 million over three years through a new initiative aimed at fostering a diverse scientific workforce. The initiative, called the NIH Director’s ARRA Funded Pathfinder Award to Promote Diversity in the Scientific Workforce, is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
To help computational modelers who study the spread of infectious diseases, including flu, researchers at RTI International in North Carolina created a synthetic population mirroring U.S. demographics. Now they’ve added another layer of realism: where the virtual citizens live.
In a technical tour de force, structural biologists funded by the National Institutes of Health have determined the three-dimensional structure of a molecule involved in HIV infection and in many forms of cancer. The high-resolution structure sheds light on how the molecule functions and could point to ways to control its activity, potentially locking out HIV and stalling cancer’s spread.
NIH has awarded 23 grants for structural biology research totaling up to $290 million over five years. The projects will focus on determining the shapes and functions of proteins important in biology and medicine.
As the United States prepares for the upcoming flu season, a group of researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health continues to model how H1N1 may spread.
NIH plans to spend $161.3 million over the next five years to expand the Pharmacogenomics Research Network (PGRN), a nationwide collaborative of scientists focused on understanding how genes affect a person’s response to medicines. The PGRN has already identified gene variants linked to responses to medicines for different cancers, heart disease, asthma, nicotine addiction and other conditions.
Using computer models to study the strengths and weaknesses of different stent structures could help manufacturers optimize stent design and help doctors choose the right stents for their patients.
Scientists evaluated a man’s entire genome sequence for disease risks and unusual drug responses. The analysis incorporated the man’s medical and family history and statistical disease risks. The work demonstrates that whole-genome sequencing might one day play a clinical role, advancing the concept of personalized medicine.
In a major step toward predicting adverse drug reactions, systems biologists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have integrated genetic, cellular and clinical information to find out why certain medicines can trigger fatal heart arrhythmias. The new framework could be used to study other cardiac disorders and certain neurological diseases, including epilepsy and autism, and could aid the advance of personalized medicine.
If Julie Johnson had her way, doctors would check a patient’s genes before writing a prescription. Johnson, a clinical pharmacist at the University of Florida, studies this gene-drug relationship, known as pharmacogenetics, with a focus on cardiovascular diseases. Read about her life and research in the latest issue of NIH's free Findings magazine.
Over the last four years, researchers at RTI International in North Carolina have been transforming data from the 2000 census—which described the country's 281 million people and 116 million households—into a virtual U.S. population. They finished the “synthetic population” last year, and they plan to update it when the 2010 census results come out.
NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences is using $5.4 million of Recovery Act funds to accelerate basic studies of induced pluripotent stem cells.
The National Institutes of Health’s Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study adds new research expertise to increase its capacity to simulate disease spread, evaluate different intervention strategies and help inform public health officials and policymakers.
As families frolicked at the beach, American scientists unveiled discoveries about the inner workings of our bodies. To keep up with advances in the medical sciences, subscribe to free materials published by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), part of the National Institutes of Health, supports researchers who are designing new, more efficient chemical reactions that can also aid the environment by preventing waste, reducing energy usage and minimizing the use and creation of hazardous compounds.
Scientists involved in the National Institutes of Health's Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) are developing computational tools to study the emergence, spread and containment of contagious outbreaks, including H1N1.
The popular social networking site has given researchers a leg up on studying the spread of H1N1 and other potential infectious diseases. Researchers posted questions on Facebook and later developed a survey to capture people's reactions to the actual outbreak. The results ultimately will help them model how changes in decision-making influence patterns of disease spread.
A team of scientists has advanced stem cell research by finding a way to endow human skin cells with embryonic stem cell-like properties without inserting potentially problematic new genes into their DNA. The team was led by James A. Thomson, V.M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and supported in part by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a component of the National Institutes of Health.
Automakers use steel scraps to build cars, construction companies repurpose tires to lay running tracks and now scientists are reusing previously discarded medical data to better understand our complex physiology. Through a Web site called PhysioNet, they can find important information to shed light on the health of our hearts, minds and bodies.
NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences is a leading supporter of evolutionary biology research, including recent work on antibiotic resistance, the structure of our brains, and why about half of the adults in the world can digest milk.
Around 150,000 people per year get the parasitic disease, African sleeping sickness, but the only medicines to treat it are either difficult to administer, expensive, or toxic. Now, a team of scientists has put computers to work to find a solution.
As prices continue to rise for gas, groceries, and utilities, one thing remains free: fun and informative educational materials produced by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Scientists from the U.S. and Japan have created the Global Alliance for Pharmacogenomics. The effort aims to identify genetic factors that contribute to individual responses to medicines, including rare and dangerous side effects. Such research will eventually help doctors optimize the safety and effectiveness of drugs for each patient. The U.S. scientists are members of the NIH Pharmacogenetics Research Network.
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