In this activity, students conduct a short hands-on demonstration that simulates ocean acidification resulting from excess atmospheric carbon dioxide and discuss potential implications of increases in ocean temperatures and acidification due to climate change.

In this video excerpt from NOVA, find out how whole genome sequencing saved the life of Alexis, a fraternal twin who was originally diagnosed with cerebral palsy but, in fact, had an even rarer genetic condition.

In this visualization adapted from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, discover the role that dengue viral proteins play in a human cell as the virus prepares to replicate.

In this media-rich lesson, students explore some of the ethical, legal, and social issues related to personal genetic testing and genome sequencing.

In this video excerpt from NOVA, learn about the advantages, disadvantages, and ethical implications of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, a technique used to screen embryos created through in vitro fertilization for diseases.

In this video excerpt from NOVA, find out how the discovery of a gene defect has led to the development of a new drug to treat patients with cystic fibrosis.

Medicines By Design aims to explain how scientists unravel the many different ways medicines work in the body and how this information guides the hunt for drugs of the future. Pharmacology is a broad discipline encompassing every aspect of the study of drugs, including their discovery and development and the testing of their action in the body. Much of the most promising pharmacological research going on at universities across the country is sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Working at the crossroads of chemistry, genetics, cell biology, physiology, and engineering, pharmacologists are fighting disease in the laboratory and at the bedside.

In January 2014, NIH launched a series of initiatives to enhance rigor and reproducibility in research. As a part of this initiative, NIGMS, along with nine other NIH institutes and centers, issued a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) RFA-GM-15-006 to develop, pilot, and disseminate training modules to enhance data reproducibility. This FOA was reissued in 2018 (RFA-GM-18-002).For the benefit of the scientific community, we will post the products of grants funded by these FOAs on this website as they become available. In addition, we are sharing here other relevant training modules developed, including courses developed from administrative supplements to NIGMS predoctoral T32 grants.

In this media-rich, self-paced lesson, students explore some of the technologies designed to detect and treat inherited diseases and the ethical debate surrounding them.

Efforts to Instill the Fundamental Principles of Rigorous ResearchRigorous experimental procedures and transparent reporting of research results are vital to the continued success of the biomedical enterprise at both the preclinical and the clinical levels; therefore, NINDS convened major stakeholders in October 2018 to discuss how best to encourage rigorous biomedical research practices. The attendees discussed potential improvements to current training resources meant to instill the principles of rigorous research in current and future scientists, ideal attributes of a potential new educational resource, and cultural factors needed to ensure the success of such training. Please see the event website for more information about this workshop, including video recordings of the discussion, or the recent publication summarizing the workshop.Rigor ChampionsAs described in this publication, enthusiastic individuals ("champions") who want to drive improvements in rigorous research practices, transparent reporting, and comprehensive education may come from all career stages and sectors, including undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers, educators, institutional leaders, journal editors, scientific societies, private industry, and funders. We encouraged champions to organize themselves into intra- and inter-institutional communities to effect change within and across scientific institutions. These communities can then share resources and best practices, propose changes to current training and research infrastructure, build new tools to support better research practices, and support rigorous research on a daily basis.If you are interested learning more, you can join this grassroots online workspace or email us at RigorChampions@nih.gov.Rigor ResourcesIn order to understand the current landscape of training in the principles of rigorous research, NINDS is gathering a list of public resources that are, or can be made, freely accessible to the scientific community and beyond. We hope that compiling these resources will help identify gaps in training and stimulate discussion about proposed improvements and the building of new resources that facilitate training in transparency and other rigorous research practices. Please peruse the resources compiled thus far below, and contact us at RigorChampions@nih.gov to let us know about other potential resources.NINDS does not endorse any of these resources and leaves it to the scientific community to judge their quality.Resources TableCategories of resources listed in the table include Books and Articles, Guidelines and Protocols, Organizations and Training Programs, Software and Other Digital Resources, and Videos and Courses.

In this video excerpt from NOVA, learn about the advantages, disadvantages, and ethical implications of screening for genes associated with diseases, including those linked to breast and ovarian cancers.

This module follows the 5E instructional model to promote student discovery and learning about the complex interactions between climate change, the environment and human health. Students describe the impacts of changing climatic conditions on human health with emphasis on vulnerable populations and apply systems thinking to create a visual model of various health implications arising from climate change.