Bloomberg
July 8, 2009
President Barack Obama named Francis S. Collins, the scientist who led the U.S. government drive to map the human genetic code, to be head of the National Institutes of Health.
NIH “stands as a model when it comes to science and research,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House today. “My administration is committed to promoting scientific integrity and pioneering scientific research.”
Collins, a physician-geneticist, formerly headed the National Human Genome Research Institute, a member agency.
He became a driving force in the race to catalogue the 3 billion letters of the human genetic code. As director of the institutes, Collins will face calls to boost spending on cancer research and free science from politics as well as financial conflicts of interest.
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