June is Pride Month, and this month has been an important time to reflect on the neurological health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex people and all others who fall under the queer umbrella (LGBTQI+). Approximately 11 million individuals identify as LGBTQI+ living in the United States in 2020. Our society, like LGBTQI+ individuals, is multidimensional, encompassing all races, ethnicities, religions, and social classes.
Director's Messages
From June 21-22, 2022, NIH will host the 8th Annual Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative Meeting:
Some scientific problems exceed the capabilities of one or two laboratories, and therefore NINDS recognizes that interdisciplinary team science is essential to advancing our mission. By leveraging expertise and approaches across multiple disciplines, we can tackle the most ambitious goals and challenges in modern neuroscience research.
This month, we reach an important milestone in dementia research – the 10th anniversary of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which stemmed from the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA). The National Plan was created with an ambitious vision: to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by 2025.
Each of us is born with a unique genome made up of DNA that we inherit, and changes to that DNA sequence occur in individual cells over our lifetimes.
Last week, we celebrated the most mysterious and fascinating organ in the body—the brain! —by participating in Brain Awareness Week, March 14-20.
The value of fundamental neuroscience cannot be overstated enough. Since the discoveries of Santiago Ramón y Cajal well over a century ago, basic neuroscience research has continuously advanced our understanding of the workings of the nervous system.
With each new year comes possibility and promise. The challenges we have faced in 2021 continue to test our grit and in some ways, our patience. My deepest sympathies go out to those of you who have experienced loss associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet despite these challenges, I have witnessed our research and scientific community endure and persevere. With this in mind, I am steadfast and certain that there is much to be hopeful for in 2022.
From the Hippocratic corpus, the author writes, “I consider the responsibility of medicine to be to entirely relieve the suffering of the sick and to blunt the extremities of disease” (The Art 3.4-7)1. Note that despite the acknowledgement that disease may only be blunted, in promoting health it is our duty to relieve suffering wherever possible.
In the United States, rare and ultra-rare diseases are defined as conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 or 6,000 people, respectively. While these numbers may seem small, they add up to a large burden: collectively, nearly 30 million Americans are living with one of the roughly 7,000 known rare or ultra-rare diseases.