2024 Science Highlights from the NIH Director’s Blog

Credit: Donny Bliss/NIH

This year on the NIH Director’s Blog, we covered a wide range of NIH-supported research from across our institutes and centers. We explored exciting new findings that came from clinical trials and basic research, introduced us to promising new technologies, gave us insights into everything from our genetic makeups to our brain function to our immunity, and have important implications for future advances in disease prevention and treatment. While it would be difficult to sum up all we covered, here are some highlights of research findings reported in 2024.

Most Detailed 3D Reconstruction of Human Brain Tissue Ever Produced Yields Surprising Insights

Published May 30, 2024

Findings published in numerous journals this year helped us learn more about the human brain. In one fascinating example, published in Science, and supported by the NIH Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative, a research team reported the creation of the most detailed nanoscale resolution map ever produced of a cubic millimeter of brain tissue, about the size of half a grain of rice. To capture the immense number of cells, blood vessels, and neural connections in the sample in vivid detail, the researchers sliced the tissue into 5,000 thin layers and used electron microscopy to amass 1,400 terabytes of imaging data. They then used artificial intelligence (AI) models to create a 3D reconstruction of the tissue. The map they created revealed multiple brain structures that have never been seen before and has the potential to help us better understand both normal and disordered brain function.

See also: the unveiling of the first complete connectome of the fruit fly brain, the silencing of a toxic protein in the brain using an epigenetic editor which offers a potential path to treating prion diseases, and the introduction of a computerized brain implant that can decode internal speech.

Energy-Producing Enzyme Fuels the Brain with Promise for Treating Parkinson’s Disease

Published September 12, 2024

Studying the brain also helps researchers gain insights into what happens in brain-related diseases, an effort that could aid in prevention and treatment. This is evident in a study we covered from Science Advances identifying an energy-producing enzyme in the brain, that, when its activity is boosted, might potentially afford some protection against Parkinson’s disease. For the approximately one million Americans with Parkinson’s disease today, current treatments help to relieve symptoms but don’t stop the disease from progressing. These findings raise the possibility that drugs that enhance the activity of this enzyme may fuel the brain, helping to protect essential dopamine-producing neurons to treat or even prevent Parkinson’s disease, as well as other neurodegenerative conditions.

See also: findings showing that using treatments that use our immune systems to fight disease could help clear the amyloid plaques that build up in and worsen symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, and research that suggests that having just one copy of a protective gene variant may be enough to delay cognitive impairment in people genetically predisposed to developing early-onset Alzheimer’s.

AI Tool Using Single-Cell Data Has Promise for Optimally Matching Cancer Drugs to Patients

Published May 9, 2024

We covered many studies this year that utilized AI technology, and several of them specifically showed us ways that AI could be harnessed for use in cancer detection and diagnosis. In a proof-of-concept study reported in Nature Cancer, a research team developed an AI-driven tool that can predict a cancer’s treatment responses from bulk RNA data by zeroing in on what’s happening in single cells. The research team built AI models for 44 drugs approved by the FDA and found that the tool predicted the success of targeted treatments against cell lines with a high degree of accuracy. The researchers made the tool available to other scientists with the hope that this kind of research could one day help doctors more precisely match patients to their optimal cancer treatments.

See also: findings suggesting an AI tool can determine in 10 seconds whether part of a cancerous brain tumor remains during brain surgery for glioma, and a study demonstrating that a “ChatGPT-like” AI system can perform a wide range of cancer evaluation tasks and outperforms current AI methods in tasks like cancer cell detection and tumor origin identification.

Study Offers New Clues to Why Most People with Autoimmune Diseases Are Women

Published February 15, 2024

Research findings often give us clues to answering long-held questions like this one: Why are most people with a chronic autoimmune condition—such as rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis—women? This study, in Cell, suggests this difference might be due to the fact that females have two X chromosomes while males have and X and a Y. More specifically, it has to do with molecules called Xist (pronounced “exist”), that are encoded on the X chromosome and transcribed into long non-coding stretches of RNA, only when there are two X chromosomes. This important discovery points to potential new ways to think about the causes for autoimmune conditions that affect millions of people around the world.

See also: findings that offer clues to why some people have rheumatoid arthritis pain without inflammation, and new insights into how a key immune checkpoint works that have implications for treating cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Insights into Molecular Basis of PTSD and Major Depression Could One Day Aid in Diagnosis and Treatment

Published June 13, 2024

Researchers are also learning a great deal about the brain in relation to our mental health. In this study, reported in Science, a research team used a comprehensive approach to examine multiple biological processes within the brain to learn more about the molecular basis of stress-induced mental health disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). The researchers identified important roles for known stress-related pathways in brain changes underlying these disorders and hope their findings could eventually shed light on why some people develop these stress-related anxiety disorders while others don’t.

See also: findings that suggest new experiences can refresh memories of past events which helps our understanding of PTSD, and insights into the brain effects of psilocybin that show the drug could possibly have potential for treating substance use and mental health disorders.

Many People with Long COVID Have Signs of Persistent SARS-CoV-2 Proteins, New Findings Show

Published October 31, 2024

Researchers are working to understand the underlying reasons why people develop Long COVID, who is most likely to get it, and how best to treat and prevent it. A study supported by the NIH Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative, with findings reported in Clinical Microbiology and Infection, found that people with Long COVID were twice as likely to have remnants consisting of SARS-CoV-2 protein in their blood as people with no lingering symptoms. These findings will lead to additional studies that will help us better understand what causes some people to be at higher risk for Long COVID.

See also: research demonstrating that an antibiotic compound can target hard-to-treat infectious bacteria while sparing the gut microbiome in mice, and findings in tuberculosis immunity that point toward new approaches for treatment and prevention.