From conception through fetal development, childhood, and adolescence, patterns are established that determine individuality as well as susceptibility to disease. Genetic and biological factors provide the blueprints, beginning in utero, that interact with and modify developmental and social traits and the organism’s environmental response. This “imprinting” process, how and when these factors are active, determines whether individuals begin life healthy and fully functional or experience disease manifestations, not only in childhood but throughout life.

The Intramural Research Program is concerned with the biological, medical, and behavioral aspects of normal and abnormal human development. Its research effort focuses on these phenomena in “model systems” and in the human from the period of conception throughout development and maturation. Four major clinical research branches, which include training programs in genetics, endocrinology, and maternal-fetal medicine, and 16 basic research laboratories investigate a diversity of developmental models that draw on observations in bacteria, viruses, yeast, invertebrates, rodents (including transgenic systems), and nonhuman primates. Disciplines employed in these studies include cellular biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, reproductive biology, structural biology, virology, immunology, pharmacology, genetics, neuroscience, physics, and developmental psychology. One of the most exciting questions in contemporary biology concerns the study of the mechanisms and interactions that guide a single fertilized egg cell through its development into a multicellular, highly organized, and specialized adult organism. The various projects pursued at the Institute address aspects of this developmental cascade, including the biological and social processes involved in adaptation to the environment. Results from these biomedical investigations will have broad implications for the understanding and treatment of human diseases.

The role of physicians in fundamental and clinical research has decreased during the past decade while cell and molecular disease-oriented research has been on the ascendancy. A major issue confronting the Institute, as well as all NIH, is the recent dramatic decline in patient-oriented research. The potential for influencing patient care and treating disease has never been greater. Our Institute is committed to attracting medical students and young physicians to the rich possibilities of a career in patient-oriented research. The hope is that these efforts, as well as a growing national awareness of the serious implications of the decline in the number of physician-scientists, will ultimately reverse the trend and lead to an increase in patient-oriented research.