Headlines: Summer 2021

To bolster research to help communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19, NIH is funding $29 million in additional grants for the NIH Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19 Disparities. The awards will help strengthen COVID-19 vaccine confidence, access, testing, and treatment in communities of color, as well as extend the reach of COVID-19 community-engaged research and outreach. The NIH-wide effort is led by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

In April, NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee regarding NIH’s plans to study “long COVID”—a constellation of symptoms that persist in patients after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Since Congress appropriated $1.15 billion for this work in December 2020, NIH has been working to design a fast, flexible, and comprehensive research initiative. NIH experts also recently published a paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine that outlines what is known about long COVID and the knowledge gaps that need to be addressed in future research.

Dr. Collins and several NIH leaders appeared before the Senate Appropriation Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies to discuss the fiscal year 2022 NIH budget request. Dr. Collins stated that the proposed $51 billion budget will continue to fund research addressing the impact of the pandemic and tackle some of our nation’s most persistent health challenges, including health disparities, maternal mortality, mental health, and opioid use disorder. In addition, the 2022 budget proposes to establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which is designed to tackle bold challenges through a non-traditional and nimble approach to high risk research.

On May 17, NIH welcomed back members of Congress to campus, where a group of US senators toured the Vaccine Research Center, heard about the RADx pipeline of new COVID-19 testing technologies, and learned of emerging research on the effects of the pandemic on mental health.

Researchers at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) have devised a four-component small-molecule cocktail that can protect stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells from stress and help them maintain normal structure and function. The researchers showed that the cocktail can improve stem cell survival and quality, enhancing their potential for future use in therapeutic applications and in research, including genome editing.

Dr. Collins selected Marie A. Bernard, MD, as NIH’s chief officer for scientific workforce diversity (COSWD) after a nationwide search. A geriatrician, Bernard has served as deputy director of the National Institute on Aging since October 2008 and the acting COSWD since October 2020. She has had a leadership role in several NIH initiatives to enhance diversity, including the recently launched UNITE initiative, an effort to end structural racism in biomedical research.

After nearly a decade of leadership as the founding director of NCATS, Christopher P. Austin, MD, departed NIH to join a life sciences platforms company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as CEO-partner. Austin led NCATS in developing new approaches that speed therapeutic development for all diseases. Following Austin’s departure, NCATS deputy director Joni Rutter, PhD, stepped in as acting director while a nationwide search for a new director takes place.

Eric Lander, PhD, was confirmed as the 11th director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy by the US Senate on May 8. Lander will also serve as the President’s science advisor. Prior to joining the White House, Lander served as the founding director of the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University and was one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his PhD from Oxford University, UK.