Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

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The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It funds and conducts research on topics related to the health of children, adults, families, and populations. Some research topics include:

• Reducing infant deaths
• Improving the health of women, men, and families
• Understanding reproductive health and fertility
• Learning about growth and human development
• Examining, preventing and treating problems such as birth defects, intellectual disabilities, and developmental disabilities
• Enhancing well-being of persons through the lifespan through optimal rehabilitation research

History

pre-2008 NICHD Logo

At the request of President John F. Kennedy, the U.S. Congress established the NICHD in 1962. President Kennedy's sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, had been an advocate for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities with help from the family pediatrician Robert E. Cooke, pushed for research that focused on disorders pertaining to human development. In 1961 Dr. Cooke chaired a task-force on child health and growth; the task-force's report was given to congress, which then established the NICHD the following year.

The Institute was renamed after Shriver by Congress in December, 2007.

Mission

The mission of the NICHD is to ensure that every person is born healthy and wanted, that women suffer no harmful effects from reproductive processes, and that all children have the chance to achieve their full potential for healthy and productive lives, free from disease or disability, and to ensure the health, productivity, independence, and well-being of all people through optimal rehabilitation.

Operation

In 2006, the NICHD issued US $903 million in grants and spent US$359 million on direct operations, which includes intramural research conducted on NIH campuses. As of July 2012, the director of the NICHD is Alan E. Guttmacher, M.D., who has held this position since 2010.

The NICHD supports extramural research at research institutions,universities, and other organizations and conducts research through its intramural research program on the NIH campus, in Bethesda, Maryland and at other affiliated facilities.

Components

• Office of the Director (OD)
• Center for Developmental Biology and Perinatal Medicine

• Developmental Biology, Genetic & Teratology (DBGT) Branch,
• Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) Branch
• Pregnancy & Perinatology (PP) Branch

• Center for Research for Mothers and Children

• Child Development & Behavior (CDB) Branch
• Endocrinology & Pediatric Pharmacology (OPP) Branch
• Pediatric, Adolescent & Maternal AIDS (PAMA) Branch

• Center for Population Research (CPR)

• Contraception & Reproductive Health (CRH) Branch
• Demographic & Behavioral Sciences (DBS) Branch
• Reproductive Sciences (RS) Branch

• National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research
• Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research

Division of Intramural Research (DIR)

The DIR is closely concerned with the biological, neurobiological, and medical aspects of normal and abnormal human development. The DIR is divided into basic research, which is more laboratory oriented (many labs use animal models) and clinical research, which involves human patients.

DIR Basic Research

• Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch
• Endocrinology and Reproduction Research Branch
• Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biophysics
• Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Neurophysiology
• Laboratory of Cellular and Synaptic Neurophysiology
• Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology
• Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Development
• Laboratory of Integrative and Medical Biophysics
• Laboratory of Mammalian Genes and Development
• Laboratory of Genomic Integrity
• Laboratory of Molecular Genetics
• Laboratory of Molecular Growth Regulation
• Laboratory of Physical and Structural Biology
• Section on DNA Replication, Repair, and Mutagenesis
• Section on Nervous System Development and Plasticity
• Test Lab 94

DIR Clinical Research

• Bone and Extracellular Matrix Branch
• Developmental Endocrinology Branch
• Heritable Disorders Branch
• Laboratory of Clinical Genomics
• Laboratory of Comparative Ethology
• Laboratory of Developmental and Molecular Immunity
• Reproductive Biology Medicine and Biology Branch
• Perinatal Research Branch

The Institute's Notable Accomplishments

• Since its founding, the NICHD has funded research that has contributed to a decline in infant mortality of over 70%.
• The rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome has fallen 50% since an NICHD "Back to Sleep" initiative began.
• Transmission of HIV from an infected mother to the fetus has dropped from 25% to 2% as a result of an NICHD collaboration.
• NICHD scientists developed a vaccine for Haemophilus Influenzae B (Hib), which was a leading cause of mental retardation, reducing its incidence by 99% and nearly eliminating the disease.
• Many other advancements in fertility, contraception, mental retardation, and developmental biology

Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigations of NICHD commercial partnerships

On the 17 October 2011, the OIG published its results from an audit of a contract between the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and Westat, Inc., which read in part:

Our review found that during fiscal years 2003 through 2007, NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) did not comply with the time and amount requirements specified in appropriations statutes in administering contract HHSN275-03-3345 (the Contract) with Westat, Inc. (Westat). An agency may obligate appropriations for goods and services when (1) the purpose of the obligation or expenditure is authorized, (2) the obligation occurs within the time limits for which the appropriation is available, and (3) the obligation and expenditure are within the amounts provided by Congress. Federal statutes specify that a fiscal year appropriation may be obligated only to meet a legitimate, or bona fide, need arising in or continuing to exist in the appropriation's period of availability. The Antideficiency Act prohibits an agency from obligating or expending funds in advance of or in excess of an appropriation unless specifically authorized by law.

NICHD initially funded only $31.0 million of the $164.7 million contract obligation with fiscal year 2003 appropriations. NICHD obligated a total of $133.7 million in violation of the bona fide needs rule: $33.2 million of fiscal year 2004 appropriated funds, $33.3 million of fiscal year 2005 appropriated funds, $33.5 million of fiscal year 2006 appropriated funds, and $33.7 million of fiscal year 2007 appropriated funds. Because the Contract was a nonseverable service contract (a single undertaking that provides for a single outcome chargeable to the fiscal year in which the contract was awarded), NICHD was required to record the full amount of the Contract using fiscal year 2003 appropriated funds. By not doing so, NICHD potentially violated the Antideficiency Act. (When services are severable, they are continuing and recurring and chargeable to the fiscal year in which the services are provided.) NICHD complied with the purpose requirements of appropriations statutes.

We recommended that NICHD (1) deobligate $33.2 million of fiscal year 2004 funds and $33.3 million of fiscal year 2005 funds and return the canceled funds to the Treasury; (2) deobligate $33.5 million of fiscal year 2006 funds and $33.7 million of fiscal year 2007 funds; (3) record the remaining $133.7 million of the $164.7 million contract obligation against current fiscal year appropriations; (4) report an Antideficiency Act violation if sufficient current year appropriations are not available; and (5) report, in accordance with 31 U.S.C. � 1554, the adjustment to the Contract using current fiscal year appropriations. NIH agreed that a bona fide needs violation had occurred and admitted violating the Antideficiency Act but disagreed with our characterization of the Contract as a nonseverable service contract. While the statement of work may contain severable elements, we maintain that, on balance, the Contract is nonseverable.

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See also

• National Institutes of Health
• United States Department of Health and Human Services

External links

• NICHD Website
• National Institutes of Health Website
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Website