NIH

Spironolactone dosage increases reduced alcohol consumption without causing movement or coordination issues or influencing food or water intake.The medication could potentially treat alcohol use disorder.A recent study by National Institutes of Health researchers and their colleagues suggests that a medication used to treat heart issues and high blood pressure may also be useful in treating alcohol use disorder. The study presents convergent evidence from mice and rat trials, as well as a human cohort study, indicating…

New brain mechanisms linked to rats’ impulsive cocaine craving have been discovered by National Institutes of Health researchers.The discovery could pave the way for treating substance use disorders.In a rat model of impulsive behavior, researchers discovered that inhibiting certain acetylcholine receptors in the lateral habenula (LHb), a region of the brain responsible for balancing reward and aversion, made it more difficult to resist the urge to seek cocaine. These discoveries reveal a new function for these receptors…

DIVERSITY Groups regret ‘homosexuality’ views Two scientific societies this month disavowed their past involvement in practices and public statements that deemed “homosexuality” a treatable disorder—a mistaken notion that has harmed LGBTQI+ people. Decades ago, some members and former presidents of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies helped create, study, and use “conversion therapies” for sexual and gender minorities. In a statement, the group apologized for…

After having one idea batted down last year, some National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes are taking a new tack to bolster the success rate of Black scientists and researchers from other underrepresented groups seeking research grants. A program aiming to diversify the NIH workforce could award up to $20 million a year to neuroscience, drug abuse, and mental health investigators from minority groups. The program will create a new class of NIH’s standard R01 research grant…

Since the start of the global pandemic, researchers have been racing to figure out who is most at risk from SARS-CoV-2, and why.Now, a new population-based study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has found evidence of a curious coronavirus advantage for those with allergies.  In an analysis of more than 4,000 people who all lived in households that included minors, researchers noted several curious trends in terms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, including that individuals with a food allergy were only about half as…

HISTORY OF SCIENCE Paleontologist statue unveiled The paleontology pioneer Mary Anning finally has a statue honoring her contributions to the understanding of Earth’s past. On 21 May, organizers officially unveiled the statue in Lyme Regis on southern England’s Jurassic Coast. Anning collected fossils from the area’s rich deposits in the early 1800s, identifying the first known ichthyosaur and England’s first pterosaur. Her contributions were long overlooked, but in 2018, local…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain In 2020, a commentary published in Cell urged the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to address long-standing funding disparities between Black and white researchers. According to a 2011 study, Black applicants were 10 percentage points less likely to receive NIH funding than white applicants. A feature article in Chemical & Engineering News, an independent news outlet of the American…

The National Institutes of Health announced this week that—at the direction of Congress—it is tightening rules for reporting sexual and workplace harassment by NIH-funded investigators. Institutions will now be legally required to tell NIH if a grantee has been disciplined because of harassment findings. NIH calls the policy a “major step” to close loopholes that have allowed institutions to hide harassment cases from the agency. “There’s no question that we’re going to be hearing…

President Joe Biden on Thursday said the U.S. has licensed a key technology used in the current Covid-19 vaccines to the World Health Organization, which would allow manufacturers around the world to work with the global health agency to develop their own shots against the virus.The National Institutes of Health has licensed its stabilized spike protein technology to the WHO and United Nations' Medicines Patent Pool, Biden said.The spike protein is the component in the vaccines that induces an immune response, prompting…