BrainBlog

NIH to offer new clinical research opportunity Initiative to partner with Lasker Foundation NIH Press Release, 09 December 2010 The National Institutes of Health has launched a new program in conjunction with the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation that will provide medical doctors with funding for patient-focused, clinical research projects. The goal is to bridge the widening gap between cutting-edge research and improved patient care. The initiative, called the Lasker Clinical Research Scholars Program, enables exceptional clinical researchers in the early stages of their careers to first spend 5 to 7 years at the NIH Clinical Center, the world's largest hospital dedicated to patient-oriented research, in Bethesda, Md. Upon successful completion of this first stage, the scholars would be offered the opportunity to remain at the NIH as senior clinical research scientists or to apply for up to four years of independent financial support at a university or other external research inst...

The videostream of the conference is quite good (requires RealPlayer), so drop in if you want to watcht the conference. Some good presentations so far. Conference homepage

A reminder that tomorrow (Monday) you can watch the conference online. Information, including the programme, can be found at http://consensus.nih.gov/2010/alz.htm . If you tweet, the hashtag for the conference is #NIHAlz

From the NIH: NIH State-of-the-Science Conference: Preventing Alzheimer's Disease and Cognitive Decline - Day 1 View event: You will be able to view the event at http://videocast.nih.gov when the event is live. Air date: Monday, April 26, 2010, 8:30:00 AM Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local [snip] Description: For many older adults, cognitive health and performance remain stable, with only a gradual and slight decline in short-term memory and reaction times. Others, however, progress into a more serious state of cognitive impairment or into various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to investigating the causes and potential treatments for Alzheimer’s and other dementias, researchers are focused on finding ways to prevent cognitive decline. Many preventive measures for cognitive decline and for preventing Alzheimer’s have been suggested, but their value in delaying the onset and/or reducing the severity of decline or disease is unclear. B...

From a National Institutes of Health (NIH) press release : Statement of Duane Alexander, M.D., Director Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Institutes of Health On the Contributions of Eunice Kennedy Shriver in Advancing Research in Child Health, Human Development, and Intellectual Disability The entire world owes a debt to Eunice Kennedy Shriver for her foresight in calling for an institute at the National Institutes of Health to study the myriad aspects of human development, both as it unfolds without problems and when medical and environmental factors prevent it from doing so. In 1961, Mrs. Shriver persuaded her brother, then-President Kennedy, to include in his first health message to Congress the proposal for an NIH institute focusing on child health and human development research. After the bill that would establish the new institute was introduced, Mrs. Shriver testified in support of that bill and worked to persuade members ...

From the NIH on the 18th of May: NIH Study Tracks Brain Development in Some 500 Children across U.S. First Report Looks at Intelligence, Behaviors from Ages 6-18 Children appear to approach adult levels of performance on many basic cognitive and motor skills by age 11 or 12, according to a new study coordinated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Study of Normal Brain Development is tracking brain and behavioral development in about 500 healthy American children, from birth to age 18. A report published online today by the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society contains the first glimpse of behavioral data — covering IQ, motor dexterity, language, computation, and social skills — collected from children ages 6 to 18. The study "will provide researchers with a reference point for how the normal brain develops, so that they can better understand what goes wrong in children who have brain abnormalities caused by gene...