NIH Director Francis S. Collins to Step Down by End of Year

Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health for 12 years, said Tuesday he is stepping down, capping a career in which he directed crucial research into the human genome and the fight against serious diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and COVID-19. Collins said he was “grateful and proud of the NIH staff and the scientific community, whose extraordinary commitment to lifesaving research delivers hope to the American people and the world every day.” He said the decision to step down at year’s end was “a difficult one.” “I fundamentally believe, however, that no single person should serve in the position too long, and that it’s time to bring in a new scientist to lead the NIH into the future,” Collins said in a statement. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Collins was appointed the agency’s 16th director in 2009 by President Barack Obama and was asked to remain in that post by Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. He is the only presidentially appointed NIH director to serve under multiple administrations. Read More: NIH Director Francis Collins Is Fighting This Coronavirus While Preparing for the Next One He served as director of the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute from 1993-2008 and led the international Human Genome Project, which in 2003 completed a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. Biden called Collins “one of the most impor...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Public Health wire Source Type: news