The Undiagnosed Diseases Network, an NIH Common Fund program aimed at solving challenging medical mysteries, isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The program has just approved funding through 2022. With this investment, the UDN will continue to accept participants with undiagnosed conditions and hopes to better understand how to become self-sustaining in the future. Funding announcements are planned for Summer 2017, pending available funds.
About half of a man's risk for developing prostate cancer arises from malfunctioning genetic variants that are inherited. Finding those variants is challenging, in part because each variant makes a modest contribution to disease risk. By examining the whole exomes - the 1-2 percent of the genome containing protein-coding genes - of 75 high-risk families, NHGRI researchers identified three new variants that increase a man's risk for developing prostate cancer. The findings were published Nov. 26 in Oncotarget.
NHGRI researchers have identified connections in the brain that are linked to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Researchers studied large, multi-generational families to detect which brain connections are heritable in ADHD, those passed down from parent to child. These heritable brain features can help researchers discover and understand the genes associated with ADHD. The study was published November 16 in JAMA Psychiatry.
On June 5-7, 2017, the conference Genomics and Society - Expanding the ELSI Universe will gather ethical, legal and social implications researchers to reflect on current research and discuss future directions. Submit an abstract or proposal by December 1, 2016. More information at elsicon2017.org.
Three students share their stories about being a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Summer Internship Program in Biomedical Sciences. The program, one of four NIH internship subprograms, was launched in 2015 to increase the participation of students from underrepresented backgrounds in science. Non-traditional college students and students from diverse backgrounds are given the opportunity to perform cutting edge research in a federal lab.
