Francis Collins Resigns as Director of the NIH After 12 Years

Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, will be stepping down as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by the end of 2021.

Collins is the longest-serving presidentially appointed NIH director, serving three US presidents over 12 years. President Barack Obama appointed Collins as the 16th NIH director in August 2009. In 2017, Donald trump asked Collins to continue his role, and in 2021, Joe Biden followed. 

“It has been an incredible privilege to lead this great agency for more than a decade,” Collins said in an official statement. “I love this agency and its people so deeply that the decision to step down was a difficult one, done in close counsel with my wife, Diane Baker, and my family.” 

Before serving as NIH director, Collins was the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) from 1993 to 2008. In April 2003, he led the international Human Genome Project. 

Over the years, Collins launched multiple initiatives to tackle pressing issues in the US. 

For example, he created the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, a multi-billion dollar effort to study brain diseases in-depth. He also launched the Cancer Moonshot Initiative to speed new treatments for cancer and improve patient outcomes.

Collins also launched the All of Us Research Program to help researchers improve how we prevent illness and treat the full spectrum of diseases and conditions. Most recently, he worked to address the national opioid crisis and accelerate COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics. 

Additionally, Collins created many meaningful public-private partnerships, including the Accelerating Medicines Partnership, to reduce the time from identifying biological markers to treatment development.

“Few people could come anywhere close to achieving in a lifetime what Dr. Collins has at the helm of NIH,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “It takes an extraordinary person to tackle the biggest scientific challenges facing our nation amidst three distinctly different chapters of American history.” 

Collins explained that he believes that no single person should serve as NIH director for too long and that it is time to bring in a new scientist to lead NIH “into the future.”

But he will continue to lead his research laboratory at the NHGRI, which is pursuing genomics, epigenomics, and single-cell biology to uncover the causes and means of prevention for type 2 diabetes.