Washington – Dr. Francis Collins, a renowned geneticist and former life director of the National Health Institutes, announced on Saturday that he retired, leaving an agency overturned by Budgets and dismissals.
Collins: an evangelical researcher and Christian who plays with guitar known to find common land Between religion and science, he gave no reason for his abrupt departure. He issued a statement that he had been honored with a career of almost four decades in an agency “legitimately called the jewel of the federal government crown for decades.”
The NIH of $ 48 billion is the largest biomedical research financier and for a long time has had strong bipartisan support.
NIH employees “are extraordinary intellect and integrity individuals, selfless and workers, generous and compassionate. They personify excellence in every way and deserve the greatest respect and support of all Americans, “Collins wrote.
In a text message, Collins rejected an interview. His retirement had entered into force on Friday.
But his statement defended an agitation agency under the new Trump administration Financing policies and recent shots of more than 1,000 workers.
“When you hear about patients surviving cancer in stage 4 due to immunotherapy, it was based on NIH’s research for many decades. When you hear that falciform cell disease is cured due to the edition of the CRISPR gene, which was based on many years of research supported by NIH, ”Collins wrote.
Collins, 74, was the NIH director for 12 years and less than three presidents: Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Collins resigned from that position in October 2021 to return to his research laboratory, supervising scientists who study diabetes and a genetic aging disorder. He also advised Biden in How to fight hepatitis C.
At the beginning of his career, Collins discovered the gene that causes cystic fibrosis, which helped lead years to an effective treatment for lung disease. He accredited the discovery of a NIH subsidy that supports his research at the University of Michigan.
He arrived at NIH in 1993 to lead the human genome project, which in 2003 completed the mapping of the human DNA instruction book, two years earlier than expected and $ 400 million under budget, Collins said in his statement on Saturday.
Later, as NIH director, he supervised the work to understand and combat serious diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer, diabetes and COVID-19, including vaccines against the coronavirus that have saved millions of lives.
In addition to NIH’s work, Collins is widely known for writing about the intersection of religion and science.
___
The Department of Health and Sciences of Associated Press receives support from the Science and Educational Media Group of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
