In our 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) lays out an ambitious new mission: lead nursing research to solve pressing health challenges and inform practice a… | Continue reading
Ultrasound images showing fetal (left) and maternal (right) placental vasculature. Credit: Eastern Virginia Medical School and University of Texas Medical Branch The placenta is the Rodney Dangerfi… | Continue reading
You have probably done it already a few times today. Paused to remember a password, a shopping list, a phone number, or maybe the score to last night’s ballgame. The ability to store and recall nee… | Continue reading
The winter holidays are approaching, and among the many things to be grateful for this year is that nearly 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated for COVID-19. That will make it safer to spend … | Continue reading
Most of the “cool” videos shared on my blog are borne of countless hours behind a microscope. Researchers must move a biological sample through a microscope’s focus, slowly acquiring hundreds of hi… | Continue reading
There’s no question that vaccines are making a tremendous difference in protecting individuals and whole communities against infection and severe illness from SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that cause… | Continue reading
Clinical trials have shown the COVID-19 vaccines now being administered around the country are highly effective in protecting fully vaccinated individuals from the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. But will … | Continue reading
A key issue as we move closer to ending the pandemic is determining more precisely how long people exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus, will make neutralizing antibodies against this dangerou… | Continue reading
Many people, including me, have experienced a sense of gratitude and relief after receiving the new COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. But all of us are also wondering how long the vaccines will remain protec… | Continue reading
There are lots of useful online resources for people to learn about COVID-19 and some of the clinical studies taking place across the country. What’s been missing is a one-stop online information p… | Continue reading
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers around the world have shown willingness to put their own lives on the line for their patients and communities. Unfortunately, many have also con… | Continue reading
As this long year enters its final month, there is good reason to look ahead to 2021 with optimism that the COVID-19 pandemic will finally be contained. The Food and Drug Administration is now revi… | Continue reading
With the holiday season quickly approaching and COVID-19 surging in most parts of the country, millions of Americans—including me and my family—will break with tradition this year to celebrate in w… | Continue reading
The first Homo sapiens emerged in Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago. We are all descended from that common pool of ancestors. Put another way, we are all Africans. While it’s not possible t… | Continue reading
The pandemic has already claimed the lives of more than 230,000 people in the U.S., the population of a middle-sized American city. As we look ahead to the winter months and the coming flu season, … | Continue reading
The past several months have shown that most people hospitalized with COVID-19 will get better. As inspiring as it is to see these patients breathe on their own and converse with their loved ones a… | Continue reading
It’s been a tough year for our whole world because of everything that’s happening as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Yet there are bright spots that still shine throug… | Continue reading
One of the many perplexing issues with COVID-19 is that it affects people so differently. That has researchers trying to explain why some folks bounce right back from the virus, or don’t even… | Continue reading
There’s been quite a bit of discussion in the news lately about whether to pause or resume college athletics during the pandemic. One of the sticking points has been uncertainty about how to monito… | Continue reading
A key metric in seeking to end the COVID-19 pandemic is the likely duration of acquired immunity, or how long people previously infected with the responsible SARS-CoV-2 virus will be protected agai… | Continue reading
It was nearly 10 months ago on January 15 that a traveler returned home to the Seattle area after visiting family in Wuhan, China. A few days later, he started feeling poorly and became the first l… | Continue reading
The pandemic has already claimed far too many lives in the U.S. and around the world. Fortunately, as doctors have gained more experience at treating COVID-19, more people who have been hospitalize… | Continue reading
When it comes to COVID-19, anyone, even without symptoms, can be a “superspreader” capable of unknowingly infecting a large number of people and causing a community outbreak. That’s why it is so im… | Continue reading
Coronaviruses are a frequent cause of the common cold. Most of us bounce back from colds without any lasting health effects. So, you might think that individuals who survive other infectious diseas… | Continue reading
Reminding others that “masks save lives” isn’t just sound advice. It’s a scientific fact that wearing one in public can help to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.… | Continue reading
Spiders spin webs to catch insects for dinner. It turns out certain human immune cells, called neutrophils, do something similar to trap bacteria in people who develop sepsis, an uncontrolled, syst… | Continue reading
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is having a wide range of negative impacts on people affected by a variety of health conditions. Among the hardest hit are individuals struggling wi… | Continue reading
It is becoming apparent that our country is entering a new and troubling phase of the pandemic as SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, continues to spread across many states and … | Continue reading
It usually takes more than a decade to develop a safe, effective anti-viral therapy. But, when it comes to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we don’t have that kind of time. One way to speed the… | Continue reading
People all around the globe are anxiously awaiting development of a safe, effective vaccine to protect against the deadly threat of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Evidence is growing that bio… | Continue reading
A safe, effective vaccine is the ultimate tool needed to end the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Biomedical researchers are making progress every day towards such a vaccine, whether i… | Continue reading
It’s now clear that nearly everyone who recovers from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) produces antibodies that specifically target SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the infection. Y… | Continue reading
Many people who contract COVID-19 have only a mild illness, or sometimes no symptoms at all. But some develop respiratory failure that requires oxygen support or even a ventilator to help them reco… | Continue reading
With the start of summer coming soon, many are hopeful that the warmer weather will slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. There have been hints from lab experim… | Continue reading
The coronavirus 2019 (COVD-19) pandemic has brought into sharp focus many of the troubling things that we already knew about health disparities in the United States but have failed to address. With… | Continue reading
There’s been a lot of excitement about the potential of antibody-based blood tests, also known as serology tests, to help contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. There’s also an a… | Continue reading
No matter where you go online these days, there’s bound to be discussion of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Some folks are even making outrageous claims that the new coronavirus causing the pa… | Continue reading
Amid all the headlines and uncertainty surrounding the current COVID-19 pandemic, it’s easy to overlook the important progress that biomedical research is making against other diseases. So, today, … | Continue reading
Even in less challenging times, many of us try to avoid close contact with someone who is sneezing, coughing, or running a fever to avoid getting sick ourselves. Our attention to such issues has no… | Continue reading
Note to my blog readers: the whole world is now facing a major threat from the COVID-19 pandemic. We at NIH are doing everything we can to apply the best and most powerful science to the developmen… | Continue reading
Getting plenty of deep, restful sleep is essential for our physical and mental health. Now comes word of yet another way that sleep is good for us: it triggers rhythmic waves of blood and cerebrosp… | Continue reading
Some people are early risers, wide awake at the crack of dawn. Others are night owls who can’t seem to get to bed until well after midnight and prefer to sleep in. Why is this? An NIH-funded team h… | Continue reading
Anyone who’s spent time with people affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can tell you that it’s a very complex puzzle. The wide variability seen among individuals with this group of developme… | Continue reading
For those who track cancer statistics, this year started off on a positive note with the news that lung cancer deaths continue to decline in the United States [1]. While there’s plenty of credit to… | Continue reading
Drug overdoses continue to take far too many lives, driven primarily by the opioid crisis (though other drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine are also major concerns). While NIH’s Helping End Addi… | Continue reading
You might think nutrient-sensing cells in the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract would have no connection whatsoever to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). But if Diego Bohórquez’s “big idea” is correct… | Continue reading
These colorful lights might look like a video vignette from one of the spectacular evening lightshows taking place this holiday season. But they actually aren’t. These lights are illuminating the w… | Continue reading
How can you tell how old someone is? Of course, you could scan their driver’s license or look for signs of facial wrinkles or gray hair. But, as researchers just found in a new study, you also coul… | Continue reading