NIH Director Collins Will Step Down Before End of the Year
According to an Oct. 5 press release, Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., announced he was stepping down from his role as the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by the end of the year. Collins is the longest serving presidentially appointed NIH director, having served three U.S. presidents over more than 12 years.
Collins, a physician-geneticist, took office as the 16th NIH director on Aug. 15, 2009, after being appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He was asked to continue his role by President Donald Trump in 2017 and in 2021 by President Joe Biden. Previous to his role as NIH director, Collins served as the director for the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) from 1993-2008. During his time at NHGRI, he led the international Human Genome Project, that concluded in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book.
Collins was quoted in the release saying that “It has been an incredible privilege to lead this great agency for more than a decade. I love this agency and its people so deeply that the decision to step down was a difficult one, done in close counsel with my wife, Diane Baker, and my family. I am proud of all we’ve accomplished. 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. I’m most 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.”
The release states that “Known for his accessible, plain-spoken manner, Dr. Collins garnered broad bipartisan Congressional support for NIH research. During his 12-year leadership, NIH’s budget grew by 38%, from $30 billion in 2009 to $41.3 billion in 2021. Dr. Collins proposed and established bold initiatives—extending from fundamental basic science to translational science to focused projects—to tackle some of the most pressing health issues facing Americans, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, opioid use disorder, rare diseases, and the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) also released a statement on the resignation of Collins. "The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association are grateful for the longtime leadership of Francis S. Collins at the National Institutes of Health," the release states. "Dr. Collins has provided a steady, scientific voice throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Under his leadership, NIH was instrumental in researching, developing, and communicating about lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines and treatments."
In an Opinion article from The Washington Post, the Editorial Board writes that "In a dozen years as director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis S. Collins sought to make it more than the sum of its 27 institutes. He brought together scientists across disciplines, and championed the hunt for biomedical advances in troves of data. He gave meaning to the promise of big science."
That said, "Dr. Collins took some heat for this. Traditionally, science investigators pursuing basic research have been the foundation of NIH progress. Dr. Collins insists he believes in this approach. But he will be most remembered for his ambitious initiatives."
"One was the 12-year BRAIN initiative to develop tools to probe how neural circuits function, which engaged engineers who had never worked on life sciences before," the article states. "Another is the All of Us Research Program, resulting in an effort to collect data about the genomic basis of disease from 1 million volunteers. He also launched the Cancer Moonshot with then-Vice President Joe Biden. Most recently, Dr. Collins has laid groundwork for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, modeled on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It will support high-risk science pursuits. In all of these, Dr. Collins has displayed an appetite for lofty goals, loads of data, and talent cross-pollination."
The article goes on to explain that Collins has faced criticism, along with Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for not imposing firmer oversight on NIH research grants that were made through the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Some individuals believe that experiments with bat coronaviruses should have been more thoroughly investigated by a Department of Health and Human Services panel.
"Dr. Collins has responded that the experiments 'were not reasonably expected' to increase transmissibility of the viruses in humans, and the viruses studied could not have been the source of the pandemic strain," the article says. "The Wuhan laboratory is the focus of questions about whether an inadvertent leak might have led to the pandemic, but so far the virus origin remains unknown. Dr. Collins says he still thinks the evidence is most consistent with a natural origin, but he is frustrated by China’s refusal to be more open to further inquiry."
The release from NIH concludes that, “Dr. Collins will continue to lead his research laboratory at the NHGRI, which is pursuing genomics, epigenomics, and single cell biology to understand the causes and means of prevention for type 2 diabetes. His lab also seeks to develop new genetic therapies for the most dramatic form of premature aging, Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome.”
The release does not announce an interim director or replacement.
