Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., today became the 16th director of the National Institutes of Health. He was nominated to lead the NIH, the nation's premiere biomedical research agency, by President Barack Obama on July 8, and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 7.

In his July 8 nomination announcement, President Obama stated: "The National Institutes of Health stands as a model when it comes to science and research. 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."

"As a scientist, physician, and passionate visionary, Dr. Collins will further NIH's ultimate mission to improve human health," said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "He is an ideal choice to lead the NIH and I look forward to working closely with him."

"I am truly honored and humbled to take the helm today of the world's leading organization supporting biomedical research," Dr. 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 NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) from 1993-2008. 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.

In addition to his achievements as the NHGRI director, Dr. 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, genes for type 2 diabetes and the gene that causes Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. Dr. 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).

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