2011 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine

The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to National Institutes of Health grantees Bruce A. Beutler, M.D., of The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, Calif.; and Jules A. Hoffmann, Ph.D., for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity and the late Ralph M. Steinman, M.D., of Rockefeller University, New York … Read more

Social media may help identify college drinking problems

College students who post references to getting drunk, blacking out, or other aspects of dangerous drinking on social networking sites are more likely to have clinically significant alcohol problems than students who do not post such references, according to a study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the … Read more

Women exposed to DES in the womb face increased cancer risk

A large study of the daughters of women who had been given DES, the first synthetic form of estrogen, during pregnancy has found that exposure to the drug while in the womb (in utero) is associated with many reproductive problems and an increased risk of certain cancers and pre-cancerous conditions. The results of this analysis, … Read more

Research program to explore health effects from climate change

A new research program funded by the National Institutes of Health will explore the role that a changing climate has on human health. Led by NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the program will research the risk factors that make people more vulnerable to heat exposure; changing weather patterns; changes in environmental exposures, … Read more

Genetic mutation linked to inherited forms of ALS, dementia

National Institutes of Health scientists and worldwide teams of researchers have identified the most common genetic cause known to date for two neurological diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The discovery offers clues to underlying mechanisms of these diseases, and may eventually contribute to the design and testing of possible therapies.