Patients at the last chance clinic In February, artist Dunham Aurelius and accountant Sally Massagee got a thorough check-up at the US National institutes of health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.
The two were enrolled in the NIH's new Undiagnosed Disease Program a collaborative project designed to identify previously undiscovered diseases
On 1 march, she received the first dollars of a new R01 grant from the National institutes of health.
On 2 december, the US National institutes of health (NIH) approved 13 human embryonic stem-cell lines for use by US government-funded researchers the first lines to be given the green light
a standing advisory committee to NIH director Francis Collins recommended he approve an additional 27 lines,
Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are dangerous to human health, the US Environmental protection agency declared on 7 december.
) They took the health ministry to court in June, arguing that the exclusion infringed a constitutional freedom of scientific research.
World health bodies say that within 18 months they will celebrate the eradication of rinderpest, the world's most devastating cattle disease.
Nature Newsrinderpest, the world's most devastating cattle disease, will be declared eradicated within 18 months, according to world health bodies.
immune health and gene expression (I e. Mulder et al. BMC Biol. 7, 79; 2009). ) Until now, she says,
Animals raised in the isolated environment expressed more genes involved in inflammatory immune responses and cholesterol synthesis,
Glenn Gibson, a food microbiologist at the University of Reading, UK, says that previous studies have suggested that immune responses are linked to organisms in the gut.
The language states that Congress disapproves of the EPA's December 2009 assessment that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health.
By declaring greenhouse gases a public health threat, the EPA is now legally bound to regulate emissions.
The US National institutes of health (NIH) is considering extending the definition of human embryonic stem-cell lines eligible for federal funding,
who recently submitted ten lines derived from pre-blastocyst embryos to the NIH. See go. nature. com/vmucio for more.
and the interplay between the environment, nutrition and health. In 2008-09 the trust spent a total of £720 million (US$1. 1 billion) on research.
People NIH change: Raynard Kington, deputy director of the US National institutes of health (NIH), will leave the biomedical agency in late July to become president of Grinnell College in Iowa,
NIH director Francis Collins announced on 17 february. Kington, a physician with a doctorate in health policy and economics, became a key administrator at the NIH over the past decade.
As acting director before Collins took the helm last August, he oversaw the allocation of US$10. 4 billion in economic stimulus funds and the development of new guidelines for funding of human embryonic
stem-cell research. Research president: Austrian social scientist Helga Nowotny has been elected president of the European Research Council (ERC),
A 19-page statement issued by Ramesh said that his ministry had decided to impose a moratorium on the release of Bt brinjal until independent scientific studies had established that it would not adversely affect the environment or human health.
Some of these samples were not in a good condition: When we opened one old can of syrup,
if they claim to have some evidence that the crops might pose a risk to human health or the environment.
Indeed, although the EU, the World health organization and many health bodies accept that the risk of transfer of antibiotic resistance seems low
Cbnl01, that seems to be universally present in infected animals (see health/presentations/120110typingofcoxiellaburnetiiwhyisqfevercausingproblemsinthenetherlands. pdf>report.
With the Dutch Institute for Public health and the Environment, Roest's team is carrying out genome sequencing and comparisons of different strains.
If passed, the new legislation will require health -and-safety information to be provided for all chemicals,
A 55-year-old clinical-trials network needs a major overhaul, according to a report by the Institute of Medicine, the WASHINGTON DC-based health arm of the National Academies.
We are now at a stage where we have years of extensive research results on the ecological, economic and health aspects of many GMOS.
The society has established also a registry to track the health of people who undergo stem-cell therapy.
On 14 may, the US National institutes of health doled out the final big chunk of new awards to be funded from its US$10. 4-billion 2009 economic stimulus package:
The 146 individual grants include $7. 4 million to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks for building clinical-trial facilities to study health disparities in Native americans,
Nobel laureate Harold Varmus is to be the next director of the US National Cancer Institute at the National institutes of health (NIH), replacing John Niederhuber.
The $5. 1-billion cancer institute is the largest of the NIH's 27 institutes and centres.
headed the NIH during the Clinton administration, between 1993 and 1999, and then became president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New york,
But a report by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) concluded in 2009 that the compound posed significant health risks.
and thus would have a significant adverse impact on the public health. This led the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice
The extra, health-protective use restrictions we are proposing â Â are much stricter than those imposed anywhere else in the United states
says Ted Schettler, science director of the Science and Environmental Health Network in Ann arbor, Michigan,
Our understanding is that there have been no reports of adverse health effects, he said.
Organic farms win at potato pest control: Nature Newsa study suggesting that organic agriculture gives better pest control
Andrew van den Hurk of the Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services in Coopers Plains, Australia,
regardless of whether the EFSA has determined they pose no risk to human health or the environment and whether they have been approved by the European commission.
They may take decades to regain their health. Jernelã v says that other features of Ixtoc I may foreshadow what the coming months
) California's health department ruled on 11 august that such analyses constitute medical information, so must be conducted under a doctor's order
the country is facing a multitude of public-health and environmental disasters including the risk of radioactive particles being released from contaminated land around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.
According to ITAR TASS, the Russian state media, the ministry of health and social development says the death toll from the fires has risen to 53,
Long-term health effects from inhaling the smoke are another concern, he adds. Carbon monoxide pollution has risen to 10 times above the maximum permitted levels,
as we know little about the health effects of a carbon monoxide and low-dose radiation combination, said Vladimir Chouprov, an energy campaigner for Greenpeace Russia,
after an outcry from farmers and activists, environment minister Jairam Ramesh put a moratorium on planting the vegetable, pending the interacademy assessment of its safety to human health and the environment.
Plans were unveiled this week to deploy broad genetic testing for selected cancer patients in Britain's government-run health-care provider, the National Health Service (NHS.
and iron to help to combat blindness and anaemia in rural areas. But the future of Uganda's biotechnology advances remains uncertain.
and caused close to 15,000 infections by the start of this week, according to the Haitian Ministry of Public health and Population.
are confident that there will be no lasting damage to human health and the local environment Independent measurements taken in November by the international environmental organization Greenpeace confirm that tap water
A health institute for explorers Whatever you say about Matt Lewin, he's certainly not boring.
but harmless Asian worm that imitates lung cancer by triggering an immune reaction that produces tumour-like growths.
according to papers produced by the Mclaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health in Toronto, Canada. The reports, published by Biomed Central on 13 december,
Policy NIH access A key panel of advisers to the US National institutes of health (NIH) voted last week to open the Clinical Center 墉 the agency's huge research hospital in Bethesda, Maryland
) The same board voted to establish a translational-medicine centre at the NIH (see page 877 for more.
Nature Newspolicy Events People Business Research Trend watch Coming up Policy New NIH institute? The US National institutes of health (NIH) may create a centre devoted to translational medicine,
aiming to speed basic biomedical discoveries to therapy. As Nature went to press, a board of advisers to NIH director Francis Collins was set to vote on a proposal to create an institute to house The cures Acceleration Network,
a drug-development programme of up to US$500 million authorized in this year's health-care reform law.
found that the health and agriculture ministries coordinated their efforts poorly before they ordered a cull of more than 50,000 dairy goats in 2009,
and bottles, may affect development and immune responses, and poses cancer risks. Tuna quotas Fisheries regulators are showing little mercy to the Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus),
Dividing Europe into five regions, they tallied for each region how this climate regime would affect today's economy in five areas agriculture, human health, coastal flooding, river flooding and tourism.
Nature Newspolicy Research People Business Trend watch Coming up Number crunch Policy Haiti's cholera fight Health officials have outlined plans for a proposed cholera vaccination
NIH conflict clash The US National institutes of health (NIH) should issue regulations governing conflicts of interest for the institutions at which its grantees work
a report by the inspector general of the Department of health and human services urges. The NIH is revamping rules that address the reporting of potential conflicts by individual investigators
but it doesn't have analogous rules for universities and medical centres, even though these are required by law, the 10 january report notes.
French drug reform France's health minister Xavier Bertrand last week pledged to reform the country's drug-regulation system in the wake of a damning official report into why the weight-loss drug Mediator
and would jeopardize the health of local communities. US mountaintop mines, such as the one on Kayford Mountain (pictured), are largely found in the Appalachians.
2011 墉 takes place at the UN headquarters in New york. go. nature. com/potx5i Number crunch 18%The number of health advocacy groups receiving funding from Eli lilly in the first
J. Public health Â
Transgenic chickens curb bird flu transmission: Nature Newsresearchers have made genetically modified chickens that can't infect other birds with bird flu.
but some public health experts worry that eventually it will adapt to do so. In developed countries
few health regulations and long-held cultural practices involving birds. In the developing world, we cannot follow the slaughter strategy used in the developed world,
says Arnold Monto, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public health in Ann arbor.
Grants glitch Computer glitches forced Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council to shut down its online system for accepting funding applications last week.
a health-policy analysis firm based in London and in Sydney, Australia. Funding for basic research jumped by 21%;
They can have severe socioeconomic, health and environmental impacts: some of the most damaging diseases are Rift valley fever (Phlebovirus),
Mcdermott and his ILRI colleague Delia Grace warn today at a conference in New delhi (Leveraging agriculture for improving nutrition and health).
Clinical research The US National institutes of health (NIH) has launched an elite programme to create a new breed of physician scientists.
The scheme will support three medically trained scholars to conduct clinical research on the NIH's campus in Bethesda, Maryland, for 5 7 years at a cost of around US$1 million a year each.
000 funding for another 5 6 years at the NIH or elsewhere. The scheme will eventually support 20 30 researchers.
Medical detectives An effort to find the causes of mystery illnesses has declared its first success. Researchers at the Undiagnosed Diseases Program at the National institutes of health in Bethesda,
an analysis of health-examination surveys has found (M m. Finucane et al. Lancet doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736 (10) 62037-5;
Oil-spill health study A study claiming to be the largest ever to follow up the long-term effects of an oil spill on human health was launched on 28 february (see nihgulfstudy. org.
The National institutes of health says it has committed US$19 million to the project so far; its National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences hopes to spend a decade following 55,000 of the workers
and volunteers who supported the cleanup effort after the Deepwater horizon disaster in the Gulf of mexico. Booking a rocket The first contracts have been signed to send researchers into suborbit using commercial spacecraft.
health organizations and the public about existing viruses and attract scientists to the field. Wheat killer A research programme tackling a devastating wheat fungus has been granted US$40 million over five years as part of a partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington,
I'm optimistic that biofortification can help to improve people's health and lives because we are using sustainable foods that people already grow,
there is no mother who would not want to use them to increase the health of her kids,
focusing on regions important for freshwater resources and where pollution has had a negative impact on health such as villages with high rates of cancer or endemic diseases.
over how radiation affects the fitness of birds and invertebrates. A recent study2 that reports reduced survival in barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, where dose rates are now barely above natural values,
A meeting of THE WHO's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly, this week was supposed to produce a deadline,
Naoto Kan, then health minister and now prime minister of Japan, admitted partial government responsibility in the scandal (see Nature 379,663;
but the patients are stuck with the virus. The health ministry says that it will continue to support their treatment.
Genome grants The US National institutes of health's ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) programme which aims to catalogue all the functional elements of the human genome,
In some insects, double stranded-rna RNA, a hallmark of viral infection, can provoke a specific antiviral immune response.
At the meeting, Michelle Flenniken, a virologist at the University of California, San francisco, presented evidence that, in honeybees, it can also trigger a general immune response that might ward off a variety of threats.
What we think we've found is a window into this new immune-response pathway. Flenniken adds that knowing more about the bee's immune responses might help researchers to find ways of priming the system
and help bees to cope with their foes at the genomic level. Such a prospect may be a long way off,
what could be the world's largest research database linking genetic profiles with health records.
Canada. go. nature. com/ukzje9 16 24 may The 64th World Health Assembly, meeting in Geneva,
together with an international team, is studying the long-term ecological and health consequences of the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine.
these colours are real-life indicators of population viability and individual health. If we can amass long-term data sets before these disasters we can get a sense of the changes that occur due to humans.
and approved those drugs more quickly, according to a report in Health Affairs on 16 june. Up to the end of March 2010, the US agency had approved 32 new anticancer drugs,
See go. nature. com/ouxsup for more. UK health research The UK government has promised that medical research will receive greater attention in its revised proposals for reforming the country's public health service,
Britain's health minister would be given a new duty to promote research in the National Health Service,
while offering insights into forest health and diversity. The team's work combines physics biochemistry and ecology, beginning with measuring subtle differences in the way the forest canopy absorbs
Once a product has been released for 20 years with no reported risks to human health and the environment
health and education that is maintained by the government. Andelman says that all the data she collects can be broken down to the level of individual households,
All this adds up to a potentially disastrous public-health problem in West Africa, says Cunningham and one that is currently not recognized
This is the first step along the line to a public-health threat. Wood agrees. I would be surprised
and labelled with claims that consuming these microorganisms can be good for your health. But a study published today shows that such yoghurts have only subtle effects on the bacteria already in the gut
which was funded by the US National institutes of health and Danone Research, the research arm of the food company that makes some probiotic yoghurts,
Companies that sell foods with added ingredients that are intended to boost health or prevent illness are under increasing pressure to substantiate the claims about their products.
The health claims are hard to test, says Gordon, because there is so much variety in the bacteria in the yoghurts
There was some evidence that it had reversed damage to nerves, but the result was not statistically significant,
a condition caused by the body's own immune system attacking the myelin sheath that normally protects the nerves and speeds up neurological signals in the brain and spinal cord.
and increased research to rule out health risks stemming from the bean. Nodari, a former member of CTNBIO who has questioned long transgenic crops,
ruling that the government must prove that the crop poses major health or environmental risks.
combined with large text health warnings, will take up over 75%of the surface of the packet.
says Simon Chapman, a public-health scientist at the University of Sydney. He says that no other product has had ever its packaging regulated so systematically by the government.
Australian public-health experts hope that taking away this means of promotion and making the packets highly unattractive will deter nonsmokers,
The predicted health and economic benefits of plain packaging have garnered all-party support for the plan in the Australian parliament,
Australian health minister Nicola Roxon has said repeatedly that the government will go ahead with the plan despite the threats."
The US Food and Drug Administration had planned to mandate graphic health warnings on packets from September 2012,
so health agencies and governments will be watching closely to see whether it has significant public-health effects,
and what political and legal battles ensue
The mystery of the magnetic cowse. ELISSEEVA/GLOWIMAGES. COMCATTLE seem to align with magnetic field lines,
Future medicine The US National Research Council (NRC) has called for a network that would connect patients'health records with layers of data on molecular tests, genetics,
The report was requested last year by the National institutes of health. See go. nature. com/ayesl2 for more.
Reuters, IMS Health Â
How mammoths lost the extinction lottery: Nature Newswoolly mammoths, woolly rhinos and other large animals driven to extinction
The report was accepted immediately by the US National institutes of health, where director Francis Collins said that"something like 50%of the agency's roughly 37 projects involving chimps would be phased out
its products include biological drugs for rheumatoid arthritis and anaemia. SOURCE: GTM RES.//SEIAUS solar-energy installations spiked during the third quarter of 2011,
the US Department of health and human services'Office of Research Integrity (ORI) named David Wright as its permanent director on 5 december.
Pill politics In a surprise move, the US Secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, has overruled the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and denied girls under 17 access to the emergency contraceptive levonorgestrel known as the morning-after pill,
Through a blend of clever politicking and sheer fatigue, the deal was thrashed out in impromptu huddles that formed in the main conference hall during the small hours of 11 Â December,
and examines how different levels of greenhouse-gas emissions could affect sectors such as agriculture, health and infrastructure over the twenty-first century.
Public health, business, agriculture and forestry, urban infrastructure and natural ecosystems are identified all as priority areas for early action.
whether the public-health benefits of the work outweigh the risks of a potential pandemic if the virus escaped from the lab. For the scientists who have created the mutated strains of the H5n1 virus,
allow health organizations to monitor birds and other animals for the mutations that would provide an early warning of a pandemic
As such, work on the viruses is unlikely to offer significant, immediate public-health benefits, they say. That tips the balance of risk-benefit assessment in favour of a cautious approach, says Michael Osterholm,
and public-health officials on a need-to-know basis. The US government, the World health organization (WHO) and other bodies are now trying to put this mechanism together,
says Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public health in Boston, Massachusetts.""There are many, many,
which the mutant flu research could provide immediate public-health benefits, Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, replies:"
In each of these cases, simple steps to curb air pollution would promote public health; scaled up, they may offer the only realistic way to tame global warming over the next few decades.
The 10 january announcement by the government's health ministry was viewed as an effort to crack down on a flourishing trade in unproven stem-cell therapies,
and this is a major risk to animal and human health
Canadian oil sands: defusing the carbon bombenvironmentalists and many politicians have called the oil sands a planetary-scale threat as they fight to prevent further development of the resource.
The country's largest research agency, the National institutes of health, saw its budget held level. NASA, meanwhile, looks set to lose out,
says Ilaria Capua an avian-flu researcher at the Veterinary Public health Institute in Legnaro, Italy, who champions greater availability of sequences5.
"This certainly is a source of concern for public health. The size of a country s poultry population is no predictor of how many samples that country will generate (see Many birds, few samples.
although the study did not look at the monkeys'health. The changes did not seem permanent.
Research has shown also the health consequences of low social status on both animals and humans. One investigation, known as the Whitehall study2, found that low-ranking British civil servants suffer higher rates of illness and death than their superiors.
because they confirm that health depends on social status, and not vice versa, says Michael Marmot, an epidemiologist at University college London,
UK,"is to link this genome sequence to traits that are useful and important, especially for food security and human health
because the fluke alters their immune response. A 2007 study supports this interpretation, showing that animals with preexisting tuberculosis had reduced sensitivity to the skin test
But health officials fear that the spread of insecticide-resistant mosquitoes could bring about a resurgence of the disease.
Health authorities in Somalia, Sudan and Turkey have reported also sporadic resistance to the two other classes of insecticides recommended by THE WHO for safe and effective household spraying:
In the meantime, health officials may be able to keep malaria at bay by swapping insecticides. The report notes that in Colombia
African ministers of health realize the need to manage resistance but can t do much without outside funds,
Biomedical careers The US National institutes of health on 14 Â June received two key reports on how to improve prospects for young biomedical scientists.
Mikovits theft case Chronic-fatigue-syndrome researcher Judy Mikovits is no longer facing criminal charges for stealing lab notebooks, computers and other material from her former employer, the Whittemore
although Mikovits (known for her now-retracted work linking chronic fatigue syndrome to a virus) still faces a civil suit from the institute.
2012) to show the scale of the health threat from mercury in Madre de dios. She found that in mining zones,
countries will need to pay health workers to distribute the medicine, and to monitor adverse effects.
Child study revamp  Leaders of the US National Children s Study have released a revised design for the ambitious effort to track influences on the health of 100,000 American children from before birth to age 21.
fuel, fiber, health, and environmental security through enhancing the pipeline of a well-educated and trained workforce.
and the Hanoi School of Public health in Vietnam, analysed 1, 000 surveys of disease covering 10 million people and 6 million animals.
NIH funding The US National institutes of health (NIH) will fund an initiative to help extramural researchers to diagnose mysterious maladies
a pot of money worth $545 million a year that the NIH director uses to make strategic investments.
and in overweight people who have related a weight health condition. See go. nature. com/vajfqe for more.
Health act upheld The US Supreme court on 28 Â June voted narrowly in favour of upholding the Patient Protection
but recommended that long-term studies should be vigilant for any health effects. Benbrook says that,
the labelling could support health studies by helping to track people s food choices. Pro-GM plant scientists also point out that the crops can benefit the environment by enabling farmers to use less-toxic herbicides
even big forest patches are in fact largely empty of mammals a proxy for the general health of the ecosystem."
focusing on materials for health and medicine. go. nature. com/tej8lw23-25 august The brain s connectome
The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National institute of health Research (NIHR) are each putting £5  million (US$8  million) into the project.
Gene-test regulation Personal-genetics company 23andme announced on 30 Â July that it was seeking approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its genetic tests related to health
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