Human development—cradle to mid-years

Abstract

When the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD] contained the aging branch as well, they called us the cradle-to-the-grave institute. Now we're just sort of cradle to menopause, says Deputy Director Duane Alexander, MD. This pretty well sums up the purview of the institute that administers a multidisciplinary program of research, training, and public information on maternal, child, and family health, and on population. One of the two major challenges facing this institute at the present time is the problem of low birth weight, states NICHD Director Mortimer B. Lipsett, MD, an expert in developmental endocrinology who has been head of the institute since July 1982. Before that, he directed the NIH Clinical Center. Its studies focus... on human development across the spectrum Unlike the Clinical Center or some other agencies in the NIH, the NICHD is noncategorical, or nondisease-oriented. Instead, its studies have a broad focus,