US Senate Confirms Geneticist Francis Collins as Director of NIH. (August 10, 2009)

The United States Senate last Friday confirmed geneticist Francis Collins as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Despite there being some reservations in the in the bio-medical scientific community about Dr Collins appointment because of his religious convictions, earlier in the week a Senate committee had approved the nomination of the former director of the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

Dr Collins is expected to take up the directorship before the end of the month. The most immediate challenge he will face is the US$10.4 billion windfall the NIH received through the Obama administration's economic stimulus package. The money drew record grant applications for the organisation's Challenge Grants, and winners must be announced by the end of next month. Furthermore, the NIH will need to address the matter of who and how it will support researchers when their stimulus grants run out after two years.

Other issues which are expected to need the new director's near immediate attention are determining that grant proposals for human embryonic stem cell research comply with new guidelines and tightening the rules for insuring there are no conflicts of interest by in-house staff or grantees.