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Might lead to better understanding of sleep disorders, heart disease, and more If you feel energized or tired around the same time each day, or routinely get up early or stay up late—the familiar ‘early riser’ or ‘night owl’ syndrome—you are witnessing, in real time, your circadian rhythm at work. That’s the 24-hour internal body clock which...

NHLBI K-12 grants will advance implementation science Every year, the outcomes of many millions of dollars in medical and health care research are, if not lost in translation, at least significantly delayed in getting into your doctor’s office. Some experts propose that discoveries can take as long as 17 years, on average, to enter routine clinical...

A broken heart can’t fix itself—at least not yet. Consider what happens after a heart attack, when the cardiac muscle gets damaged. The heart does such a poor job at regenerating new muscle that scar tissue quickly develops in its place. The problem: that scar tissue doesn’t contract like normal tissue does, and the heart’s capacity to pump blood...

They ranged in age from 15 to 61—four African American women, all with stories to tell about their struggles with sickle cell disease, all with stories about a common experience that helped them through those struggles: participating in clinical trials. It mattered, said the women, all of whom had joined trials funded by the National Institutes of...

The notion of altering a person’s genes to cure disease used to be the stuff of science fiction. But gene editing experiments aimed at the genetic disorder that causes sickle cell disease are now making their way from the laboratory to clinical trials. And researchers supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) are hoping...

As the country struggles with the devastating opioid crisis, researchers say it could have dire consequences for one population with few pain-relieving alternatives: people living with sickle cell disease. The increasingly tight restrictions on opioid access, they say, is stirring fears that patients will face greater scrutiny than they already do...

Her story : Cortney Sanders had been in and out of hospitals all her life because of her SCD, but she’d never met a nurse with the disease—until one day, she did, “and I just couldn’t believe it.” The nurse told her “you can do it,” and now—after getting her associate’s degree with honors—Sanders is working toward becoming a nurse at a Florida...

Researchers look for biomarkers and genes to speed diagnosis, improve treatment Mounting scientific evidence about the health dangers of sleep apnea—a common disorder which causes people to stop breathing during sleep—is spurring new and important studies that could lead to improved diagnosis and treatment. Researchers funded by the National, Heart...

For many people living with sickle cell disease, the latest news coming from the fronts of research may be cause for serious hope. Just last year, scientists announced that an experimental gene therapy procedure appears to have eliminated the disease in a French teenager. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), meanwhile, recently approved the...

Patients, doctors and researchers lock hands and embrace the COPD National Action Plan. It started as an ordinary press conference—a scientist, a doctor, an advocate, a patient, sitting around a table in the good spirit of enthusiasts breaking new ground. They were about to announce the release of the first National Action Plan to fight chronic...