Publicly-Funded Research in America and its Benefits

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Category: Health and Well-being

  • Air Purifiers

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    To help astronauts survive long-term missions, NASA started thinking about ways to grow food in space. This required reducing the amount of ethylene in the air. Ethylene is a gas released by plants, and its build-up in a closed environment (like the space station) leads to wilting and accelerated plant decay. NASA funded research at…

  • Gila monster venom as medicine for type 2 diabetes

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    If you heard that the National Institutes of Health was funding research on lizards, you might at first think that the N.I.H. was wasting taxpayer money. But in fact, a researcher at the Veteran’s Affair’s Medical Center in the Bronx discovered that the venom of Gila monsters (lizards from the Southwest of the U.S.A.) is…

  • Treatment for Postpartum Depression

    Treatment for Postpartum Depression

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    Postpartum depression (PPD) affects 1 in 8 women and is a primary cause of maternal mortality following childbirth. Until recently there was no treatment specifically for PPD, with standard antidepressants proving ineffective and too slow. NIH-funded basic research into a hormone called allopregnanolone, revealed its role in regulating specific types of neurons in the brain…

  • Immunotherapy to fight melanoma skin cancer

    Immunotherapy to fight melanoma skin cancer

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    Cancer is a devastating disease. Each year, approximately two million people are diagnosed with cancer, with half a million people dying from cancer-related causes. Of these, late stage melanoma is one of the deadliest. However, funded by the National Institutes of Health, basic research into immunology in the 1990s by James Allison, who was then…

  • Fluoridated Water

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    Tooth decay and cavities are among the most common afflictions in the world, however they used to be far more common. In the mid-20th century, an 15-year experiment was performed directly by the National Institute of Dental Research in Grand Rapids, Michigan to test whether adding fluoride its drinking water would reduce the rate of…