Sickle cell disease is a painful condition caused by a single amino acid that has gone awry and typically results in 30 years less life expectancy for those who have it. Dr. Gilda Barabino of the City College of New York is leveraging what we know about cell and tissue biomechanics to treat and track SCD.
An anti-inflammatory called hyaluronic acid 35 (HA 35) might one day protect patients from the complications of moderate alcoholic liver disease, said Dr. Laura Nagy at NIAAA’s 24th annual Mark Keller Honorary Lecture. “We’re in the planning stage for conducting a pilot clinical trial, to see whether providing HA 35 to healthy adults before a single alcoholic drink can protect the gut,” she said.
Is it possible to predict our mental state? Dr. Maryam Shanechi is pioneering work to model and decode mood variations, efforts that ultimately could enable modulating brain networks to help patients with treatment-resistant depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
The NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series will host a lecture by recent Nobel laureate Dr. James P. Allison on Mar. 11 and on Mar. 18, the Dyer Lecture by Dr. Lisa A. Cooper, Bloomberg distinguished professor, health and health care equity.
On the Cover
Near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). A research participant is prepared for fNIRS, which assesses brain activation during motion capture, at the NIH Motion Analysis Lab.
