2009-07-08
President Barack Obama will nominate Francis Collins, MD, PhD, to become Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dr. Collins is the former director of the National Human Genome
Research Institute (NHGRI) at NIH, where he led the effort to complete
Human Genome Project, a complex multidisciplinary scientific enterprise
directed at mapping and sequencing all of the human DNA, and
determining aspects of its function. Dr. Collins left his position as
director of NHGRI in 2008 to explore other writing and professional
opportunities, but has continued at NHGRI's Division of Intramural
Research as a Special Volunteer.
Collins received a BS from the University of Virginia, a PhD in
Physical Chemistry from Yale University, and an MD from the University
of North Carolina. Following a fellowship in Human Genetics at Yale, he
joined the faculty at the University of Michigan, where he remained
until moving to NIH in 1993.
Some of Dr. Collins’ early research focused on sickle cell disease,
thalassemia, and the hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin. His
research has also led to the identification the genes responsible for
the M4 type of adult acute leukemia. He is a member of the Institute of
Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences and was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor given by the
President, in November 2007.
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