Diabetes Dateline
Fall 2009
NIH News
Collins Takes Helm at the National Institutes
of Health
On August 17, Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., officially became the
director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Nominated by
President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate,
he is the 16th NIH director.
“I am truly honored and humbled to take the
helm today of the world’s leading organization
supporting biomedical research,” Collins said.
“The scientific opportunities in both the basic
and clinical realms are unprecedented, and the
talent and dedication of the grantees and the staff
guarantee that this will be a truly exciting era.”
Dr. Collins, 59, a physician-geneticist noted for
his landmark discoveries of disease genes and
his leadership of the Human Genome Project,
served as director of the NIH’s National Human
Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) from
1993 to 2008. Under his direction, the Human
Genome Project consistently met projected
milestones ahead of schedule and under budget.
This remarkable international project culminated
in April 2003 with the completion of a finished
sequence of the human DNA instruction book.
“The National Institutes of Health stands as a
model when it comes to science and research,” said
President Obama upon nominating Collins. “My
administration is committed to promoting scientific
integrity and pioneering scientific research,
and I am confident that Dr. Francis Collins will
lead the NIH to achieve these goals. Dr. Collins
is one of the top scientists in the world, and his
groundbreaking work has changed the very ways
we consider our health and examine disease.”
In addition to his achievements as the NHGRI
director, Collins’ own research laboratory discovered
a number of important genes, including
those responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis,
Huntington’s disease, a familial endocrine
cancer syndrome, and most recently, the
gene that causes Hutchinson-Gilford progeria
syndrome and genes for type 2 diabetes.
Collins has a longstanding interest in the interface
between science and faith and has written
about this in The Language of God: A Scientist
Presents Evidence for Belief (Free Press, 2006),
which spent many weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. He is the author of a new book
on personalized medicine, The Language of Life:
DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine (HarperCollins, to be published in early 2010).
“As a scientist, physician, and passionate visionary,
Dr. Collins will further NIH’s ultimate mission
to improve human health,” said U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius. “He is an ideal choice to lead
the NIH and I look forward to working closely
with him.”
Collins received a B.S. in chemistry from the
University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in physical chemistry
from Yale University, and an M.D. with
honors from the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to the NIH
in 1993, he spent 9 years on the faculty of the
University of Michigan, where he was a Howard
Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He is an
elected member of the Institute of Medicine and
the National Academy of Sciences. Collins was
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
November 2007.
The NIH includes 27 Institutes and Centers and
is a component of the HHS. The NIH is the
primary federal agency for conducting and supporting
basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and it investigates the causes, treatments,
and cures for both common and rare diseases.
For more information about Collins, visit
www.nih.gov/about/director.
For more information about the NIH and its
programs, visit www.nih.gov.
NIH Publication No. 10–4562
November 2009
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