For the first time, scientists have tracked the activity, across the lifespan, of an environmentally responsive regulatory mechanism that turns genes on and off in the brain's executive hub. Among key findings of the study by National Institutes of Health scientists: genes implicated in schizophrenia and autism turn out to be members of a select club of genes in which regulatory activity peaks during an environmentally-sensitive critical period in development.

Posted on 3 February 2012 | 2:01 pm

National Institutes of Health researchers and their colleagues have identified how resveratrol, a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine and other plant products, may confer its health benefits.

Posted on 2 February 2012 | 12:01 pm

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) welcomes six new members to the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The council serves as the principal advisory body to NCCAM, the lead federal agency for research on complementary medicine, and a component of the National Institutes of Health.

Posted on 2 February 2012 | 8:36 am

As part of American Heart Month, on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's (NHLBI's) The Heart Truth campaign, with the support of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), will showcase its signature event, the Red Dress Collection 2012 at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City.

Posted on 1 February 2012 | 9:31 am

Several U.S. government-funded HIV/AIDS clinical research sites in Africa will join other collaborators in an ongoing clinical trial testing an investigational tuberculosis (TB) vaccine in infants at risk for TB infection. "We are pleased to be able to tap into our existing HIV/AIDS clinical research infrastructure to help test promising investigational vaccines against TB," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. The sites are funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Posted on 31 January 2012 | 1:31 pm

January 27, 2012 Jan. 27--Gov. Pat Quinn announced plans last week to close two state mental health institutions and move their patients into community-based care. The governor is getting a ton of heat over this decision, from politicians, from parents of patients and from community leaders. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. said the state...

Posted on 27 January 2012 | 8:05 pm

January 26, 2012 WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Kristy Bryner worries her 80-year-old mom might slip and fall when she picks up the newspaper, or that she'll get in an accident when she drives to the grocery store. What if she has a medical emergency and no one's there to help? What if,...

Posted on 26 January 2012 | 8:05 pm

January 24, 2012 Jan. 24--STOCKTON -- At first, you feel a bit silly. You're with a bunch of strangers and you're wearing goggles that blur your vision, oversized gardening gloves that impair your fingers and prickly insoles inside your shoes that tickle the bottoms of your feet.

Posted on 24 January 2012 | 8:05 pm

January 24, 2012 Jan. 24--More than 14 years after Imka Pope gave birth alone in a King County Jail cell, a jury in U.S. District Court this week will hear her claim that jail nurses and corrections officers violated her civil rights by dismissing her claims that she was pregnant as the ramblings...

Posted on 24 January 2012 | 8:05 pm

January 24, 2012 Jan. 24--A new government survey shows that mental illness is vastly undertreated in the United States.

Posted on 24 January 2012 | 8:05 pm