The recent observance in May of National Arthritis Awareness Month offered us a chance to reflect on a sizable component of the NIAMS mission area. Arthritis impacts the lives of nearly 60 million Americans. However, a recent conversation with David Wilson, Ph.D., director of NIH’s Tribal Health Research Office, reminded me that arthritis hits some communities harder than others.

NIBIB-funded researchers are developing an implantable, biodegradable film that helps to regenerate the native cartilage at the site of damage. Their study, performed in rabbits, could be an initial, important step in the establishment of a new treatment for this common condition, osteoarthritis.

Sometimes, your immune system makes mistakes. If it sees your body’s healthy cells as a threat, it may attack them. This can cause an autoimmune disorder.

HEAL-funded researcher Conor Walsh, Ph.D., and his team at the Harvard Biodesign Lab specialize in developing soft “exosuits” – wearable devices that help people with muscle weakness (for example, after a stroke) so they can regain movement and muscle strength.

Using artificial intelligence and MRI scans, researchers identified signs of osteoarthritis three years before diagnosis. The results suggest a way to identify people who may benefit from early interventions.

To support the newly launched Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Bespoke Gene Therapy Consortium (BGTC), the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) has released multiple opportunities for researchers, clinicians, and patient advocates to contribute to the work of the consortium. Two Requests for Proposals (RFPs) have been announced. The BGTC is seeking high-throughput screens or other promising developments to optimize individual steps of the adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector generation and human gene expression pathways. The AAV Vector Generation RFP is available here. The AAV Gene Expression RFP is available here. The BGTC Steering Committee also seeks information on rare diseases

Dear Colleagues, Today, the National Institutes of Health, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), eight pharmaceutical companies and five non-profit organizations have partnered to further our understanding of the cellular and molecular disease pathways in autoimmune and immune-mediated diseases.

NIH researchers reveal new insights about the relationship between hair and hair follicles and the skin’s immune system.

Dear Colleagues, 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 acknowledgment that disease may only be blunted, in promoting health it is our duty to relieve suffering wherever possible.