National Institutes of Health

Type: Government Agency
On the web: http://www.nih.gov

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), through its own research and the distribution of grants, seeks to understand disease inside and out. Part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the NIH is the government's main medical research entity. It comprises 27 institutes and centers covering every medical discipline, from general medical sciences to alternative therapies. The organization has nearly 6,000 scientists of its own and gives out some 50,000 grants to researchers at more than 3,000 universities, hospitals, and research labs in all 50 states. Among its vast array of projects, NIH has supported efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine, map human genetic variation, and study avian flu.

Officers:
Deputy Director, Management and CFO: Colleen Barros
Center for Information Technology: John F. Jones
Director Office of Communications and Public Liaison: John Burklow

An agency within the United States Public Health Service comprising several institutes and constituent divisions, including the Bureau of Health Manpower Education, the National Library of Medicine, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute for Dental Research, and a number of other research institutes and divisions.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the principal federal agency that supports and conducts biomedical research on the prevention and treatment of disease. It is the center of biomedical research in the United States and the foremost medical research enterprise in the world, with a budget in 2001 of $20.3 billion. An agency of the U.S. Public Health Service, it is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There are twenty-seven institutes and centers that comprise the National Institutes of Health, and the research supported by these institutes ranges from basic molecular and genomic biology to translational and applied studies involving individuals and large populations. Training for careers in biomedical research is also an important part of the NIH mission, as is the dissemination of information from this research to the public, to health providers, and to scientists.

History of Nih

The history of NIH reflects an interweaving of the disciplines of public health, medicine, and basic biology, with a changing emphasis among these areas as health science progressed. The NIH had its origins in the Laboratory of Hygiene, which was created in 1887 to research cholera and other infectious diseases. The laboratory was an out-growth of the Marine Hospital Service created in 1798 and, in turn, became the Public Health Service in 1912. Early activities focused on infectious and communicable diseases brought to the United States on incoming ships, and on the prevention of epidemics of yellow fever and cholera. In 1914, Dr. Joseph Goldberger described his findings that pellagra was a nutritional deficiency disease, rather than an infectious disease, and could be prevented by appropriate diet. This discovery marked a shift from infectious disease investigation. Research on the importance of nutrition in disease causation was fostered by this discovery, and the essential nature of vitamins in health followed.

The modern era of NIH began in 1930 with the redesignation of the Hygienic Laboratory as the National Institute of Health. In 1935, 45 acres of land in Bethesda, Maryland, were donated for the use of the National Institute of Health. Additional gifts of land were made and the buildings and grounds on the current site and were dedicated in 1940.

The National Cancer Institute Act was passed in 1938, and the first awards for research fellowships were made the following year. Laboratories at NIH were important in improving prevention and medical care during World War II. The contributions of science to the war effort provided a compelling rationale for the remarkable investment in biomedical research that followed during the second half of the twentieth century.

The Public Health Service Act of 1944 provided the legislative authority for post–World War II research programs and made the National Cancer Institute a part of NIH. In 1948, the National Heart Institute was authorized, and the name of NIH officially became the National Institutes of Health. The research emphasis shifted to investigation of basic biology and biochemistry and the disorders of biology that lead to disease. Prevention and treatment of diseases have been based largely on understanding the fundamental alterations in biology following World War II. Support for research conducted at colleges and universities also increased with an expanding budget. Other institutes and centers have been authorized and totaled twenty-seven in 2001. A clinical center on the Bethesda campus was dedicated in 1953 as the principal on-campus or intramural resource for clinical research. This facility combines patient facilities (inpatient and outpatient) with laboratories to foster integration of research from patient to laboratory.

During the second half of the twentieth century, the breadth and complexity of biomedical research activities conducted at NIH and supported at non-NIH sites increased. From 1950 onward, research emphasis shifted to chronic diseases, which had assumed epidemic proportions in the United States and other industrialized countries. Basic levels of molecular biology and genomics were increasingly probed. This led to an important benchmark at the turn of the millennium—the publication of the human genome map. Information on the inherited susceptibility and the interplay between genetic and environmental factors will eventually provide insights that will be translated into practical research.

Studies of large populations, like the Framingham Heart Study, have also been initiated by NIH to delineate risks for disease. Similarly, large interventional trials have tested effective means of preventing and managing these risks. These investigations were an outgrowth of an improved understanding of disease causation and the need to extend these findings to patients and populations. The growth of knowledge has been exponential, and the investment in biomedical research has produced a remarkable return to the public in improved health and increased longevity. Political support for the NIH budget has been consistent and bipartisan, reflecting broad public-interest support and confidence in the benefits of health research.

Support of Research

Research activities are conducted in the laboratories of NIH by intramural scientists and are further supported through extramural grants and contracts at 2,570 academic and research facilities in the United States and worldwide. The NIH laboratories and clinical facilities are located principally in Bethesda, Maryland, with additional laboratories located elsewhere in Maryland and in Montana. Intramural research accounts for only about 10 percent of the budget of NIH. The overwhelming majority of funds thus support research being conducted at extramural sites. These extramural research studies are supported by grants and contracts awarded to nonfederal scientists working in universities, medical schools, hospitals, and research institutions. In 2000, there were over 37,000 grants and contracts supporting research and over 16,000 grants supporting research training.

Both intramural and extramural research undergoes rigorous scientific review before being funded, and oversight continues during the course of the work. Investigators who want to conduct research prepare an application describing the proposed work. This application can be initiated by the investigator, or it can be submitted in response to an NIH-initiated solicitation. Grants and contracts to non-NIH institutions and scientists are awarded after review and evaluation by panels of scientists expert in the particular research area for which support is requested. These proposals are reviewed and scored for scientific merit and relevance.

The initial scientific review by scientific peers is followed with review by an advisory council of senior scientists representing the institute or center involved, and this council is charged with over-seeing the development of a balanced portfolio of sponsored research. The grants and contracts are funded by the institutes and centers from funds appropriated to them by Congress. This review by panels of nongovernmental scientific peers (the peer-review system) has been fundamental to the evaluation and support of meritorious research and to sound investment of public funds in research. The process of peer review is now used by many other governmental and nongovernmental organizations in the United States and internationally. The researchers report on progress during the conduct of the project and, importantly, report their results in journals and meetings, making the findings available to other investigators and to the public.

Organization and Scope of Nih Research

The NIH supports and conducts research at all levels of scientific inquiry, from molecular biology through clinical research on individuals, to the study of large groups and communities. Support for training is provided at the levels of predoctoral, postdoctoral, and established investigators. Training is supported for all levels of scientific study. The institutes and centers typically support research and research training related to a specific condition (e.g., cancer, heart disease) or phase of life (e.g., child health and human development, aging) or for cross-cutting issues (e.g., health disparities, complementary and alternative medicine). Some centers are engaged in scientific review or support of research resources.

The development of the institutes has followed the evolution of public and Congressional interest in diseases and health issues. There is now a belief that research should be the foundation for health policy, medical care, and public health action. The orientation by condition or phase of life has derived from public and Congressional advocacy related to medical and public health issues. One strength of this organizational structure is the integration of basic scientists with clinical researchers in the investigation of diseases.

This vertical integration allows scientists to unite basic biology with clinical and public health science and to promote a translation of scientific advances to human clinical studies. This integration occurs in both intramural and extramural research programs, and both clinical and public health applications benefit from this orientation. Clinical research flourishes with the integration of basic research, and this has influenced medical training and specialty emphasis. Each institute or center supports the full spectrum of research, with a few exceptions.

The vertical organizational structure of the NIH requires special efforts to integrate research across the institutes at each scientific level—a horizontal integration. The commonalities of basic biologic mechanisms compel collaboration among scientists who might be studying, for example, the biology mechanisms involved in cancer or heart disease. Similarly, there are joint risks for conditions such as cancer and heart disease and this requires collaborative study of the risks to exposed populations. During the 1990s, the institutes emphasized cross-institute and trans-NIH research to afford an integration of populational research across institutes. To foster this integration, several programmatic offices within the Office of the NIH Director have been developed. The Office of Disease Prevention and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research are examples. These offices work with the institutes to develop crosscutting research in the areas of prevention and behavioral research, respectively, and to coordinate activities with other federal agencies and the private sector.

Examples of the vertical and horizontal integrations illustrate how this structure advances knowledge. The mapping of the human genome and discovery of specific genes related to particular diseases afford an opportunity to identify individuals at risk for disease and to develop approaches that might modify this risk and prevent disease. Importantly, the interplay between genetic and environmental risk can be determined and appropriate interventions developed. Variations of BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 genes were found in studies of families having a high risk of breast cancer, for example. Subsequent population studies have disclosed the prevalence and penetrance of these genes in more general populations and have provided realistic estimates of when to screen for the genetic variation. The abnormality encoded by these genes is being investigated and could lead to behavioral interventions to modify the risk of breast cancer.

Prevention research exemplifies cross-institute collaboration. Several personal and environmental risks affect development of more than one disease, and there may be beneficial as well as adverse effects. The use of hormonal replacement by menopausal women can have beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and mental acuity, in addition to the aesthetic effects for which they are commonly taken. However, this therapy also poses risks for breast cancer and cancer of the uterus. To quantify the benefits and risks of hormonal replacement therapy for this range of clinical conditions, a large clinical trial is in progress utilizing the scientific expertise of several institutes and dependant on scientists at academic institutions with a range of specialty expertise in the conditions being studied. The planning, conduct, and monitoring of this large trial has required the participation of epidemiologists, biostatisticians, clinical trialists, and community organizers.

A description of the institutes and offices, their missions, and recent accomplishments are available at the NIH web site at http://www.nih.gov/. A list of all currently funded grants and contracts is available at http://www-commons.cit.nih.gov/crisp/, including an abstract describing the research project or program. A special web site containing all NIH-supported clinical trials is available at http://clinicaltrials.gov/. This site provides information to patients and referring physicians regarding available clinical trials.

(SEE ALSO: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Healthy People 2010)

Bibliography

Mullan, F. (1989). Plagues and Politics: The Story of the United States Public Health Service. New York: Basic Books.

National Institutes of Health. NIH Almanac. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Published annually. Available online at http://www.nih.gov/about/almanac/index.html.

Shorter, E. (1987). The Health Century. New York: Doubleday.

Swain, D. C. (1962). "The Rise of a Research Empire: NIH, 1930–1950." Science 138:1233–1237.

— WILLIAM R. HARLAN

For more information on National Institutes of Health, visit Britannica.com.

National Institutes of Health (NIH), established at the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, N.Y., in 1887 as the Laboratory of Hygiene, for research on cholera and other infectious diseases. In 1891 it was renamed the Hygienic Laboratory and moved to Washington, D.C., and in 1930, as a result of the Ransdell Act, it became the National Institute of Health. In 1937 it incorporated the National Cancer Institute, and the following year Congress authorized the construction of new, larger laboratory facilities and the transfer of the National Institute of Health (NIH) to Bethesda, Md. Legislation in 1948 established a National Heart Institute and changed the name of the National Institute of Health to National Institutes of Health.

An agency of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare since that department's establishment in 1953, NIH has the mission of improving the health of all Americans. To achieve this goal it conducts biomedical research; provides grants to individuals, organizations, and institutions for research, training, and medical education; assists in the improvement and construction of library facilities and resources; and supports programs in biomedical communications. From its beginnings in a one-room laboratory, NIH has developed into a large research center. The NIH campus consists of over 300 acres and includes laboratories, libraries, and clinical facilities for highly sophisticated research into the biomedical sciences. NIH also has annual lectures, honors, exhibits, and symposia.

Its intramural program supports research in NIH laboratories on the Bethesda, Md., campus, and its extramural program distributes grants to university investigators across the United States and makes collaborative arrangements with researchers in other countries. The NIH annual budget in the early 1990s was more than $8 billion, and personnel on the Bethesda campus numbered more than 16,000. In 1993 Congress directed the NIH to include more women in research designs and analysis instead of continuing to concentrate on studies involving only men. By 1994 the NIH consisted of seventeen institutes (Aging; Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases; Cancer; Child Health and Human Development; Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; Dental Research; Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; Drug Abuse; Environmental Health Sciences; Eye; General Medical Sciences; Heart, Lung, and Blood; Mental Health; Neurological Disorders and Stroke; and Nursing Research); two divisions (Computer Research and Technology and Research Grants); four centers (Center for Research Resources; John E. Fogarty International Center; National Center for Human Genome Research; and Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center); three offices (Women's Health; Alternative Medicine; and Minority Health); the National Library of Medicine; and the Children's Inn at NIH. The NIH also funds three field units (the Gerontology Research Center in Baltimore, Md.; the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Mont.; and the NIH Animal Center in Poolesville, Md.). NIH has joined with other agencies to advance biomedical research. In one of the larger projects, NIH and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute launched a multimillion-dollar cooperative program to encourage physicians to enter research.

Bibliography

Ahrens, Edward H., Jr. The Crisis in Clinical Research: Overcoming Institutional Obstacles. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Kelley, William N., et al. Emerging Policies for Biomedical Research. Washington, D.C.: Association of Academic Health Centers, 1993.

National Institutes of Health (U.S.) Division of Public Information. NIH Almanac. Bethesda, Md.: U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 1975.

———. NIH Almanac. Bethesda, Md.: U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 1992.

Reagan, Michael D. The Accidental System: Health Care Policy in America. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a federal agency that serves as the fiscal agent of medical research in the United States. The mission of the NIH is to foster medical and behavioral research on living systems and to use that knowledge to prevent, identify, diagnose, and treat illness and disability.

The NIH originated in 1887 as a one-room bacteriological laboratory on Staten Island that was called The Hygienic Laboratory. The Hygienic Laboratory was established by the Marine Hospital Service (The Public Health Service) to diagnose and study bacterial epidemics. This laboratory marked the beginning of government-supported medical research in the United States. The Laboratory's name was changed to the National Institutes of Health in 1930. In 1938, the NIH moved to its present location in Bethesda, Maryland.

As the primary medical research agency in the United States, NIH conducts research in its own laboratories, allocates research funds for non-federal scientists, trains research scientists, and promotes the spread of medical information. Funds for the NIH are appropriated from Congress. In 2002, the NIH was appropriated almost $23.4 billion. Research grants for non-federal scientists account for about 84 percent of the appropriation. NIH's in-house research accounts for about 10 percent of the appropriation. The remainder of the budget goes toward research support costs.

NIH is one of the agencies of the Public Health Service, which is a component of the Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is comprised of 27 institutes and centers

• Center for Information Technology
• Center for Scientific Review
• John E. Fogarty International Center
• National Cancer Institute
• National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
• National Center for Research Resources
• National Eye Institute
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• National Human Genome Research Institute
• National Institute on Aging
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
• National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
• National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
• National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
• National Institute on Drug Abuse
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• National Institute of General Medical Sciences
• National Institute of Mental Health
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
• National Institute of Nursing Research
• National Library of Medicine
• Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center

The role of NIH in a national health crisis. The NIH would play a crucial role in the event of a national health crisis. The appropriate institutes within NIH would be called upon to conduct and support research that is relevant to the crisis at hand. NIH policy and the planning and management of all NIH activities is the responsibility of the Office of the Director. The Department of Homeland Security integrates many of the government's agencies to protect the American people from potential threats.

United States President George W. Bush is committed to providing a large appropriation to NIH to support biological terrorism research. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which are institutes within NIH, were called into action. NIAID has supported much of the research into the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of illnesses caused by microorganisms that may be used by bioterrorists. Immediately after the October 2001 bioterrorist attacks, NIAID accelerated the research of bacteria and viruses that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifies as "Category A" agents. Category A agents are microorganisms that cause severe illness and high death rates and are easy to spread.

NIMH has provided information and counseling to Americans who were trying to cope with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. They support the survivors, emergency personnel, and millions of others who were directly or indirectly affected by the attacks.

Further Reading

Books

Kondratas, R. Images from the History of the Public Health Service. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, 1994.

Kurian, G. T., ed. A Historical Guide to the U.S. Government. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Mullan, F. Plagues and Politics: The Story of the United States Public Health Service. New York: Basic Book, Inc., 1989.

Wilcox, W. Public Health Sourcebook: Basic Information About Government Health Agencies. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1998.

Electronic

National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20892. <http://www.nih.gov.> (January 1, 2003).

Office of the Public Health Service Historian, 18–23 Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland, 20857. (301) 443–5363. August 21, 2000. <http://lhncbc.nlm.nih.gov/apdb/phsHistory.> (October 19, 2000).

"NIH" redirects here. For other uses, see NIH (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 39°00′02″N 77°06′09″W / 39.000443°N 77.102394°W / 39.000443; -77.102394

National Institutes of Health

Building 50 at NIH

Clinical Center - Building 10

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. It consists of 27 separate institutes and centers plus the Office of the Director. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation.

The predecessor of the NIH began in 1887 as the Laboratory of Hygiene. It grew and was reorganized in 1930 by the Ransdell Act into the National Institute of Health (singular at the time). As of 2003, the NIH was responsible for 28%—about $28 billion—of the total biomedical research funding spent annually in the U.S., with most of the rest coming from industry.^[1]

The NIH is divided into two parts: the "Extramural" parts of NIH are responsible for the funding of biomedical research outside of NIH, while the "Intramural" parts of NIH conduct research. Intramural research is primarily conducted at the main campus in Bethesda, Maryland and the surrounding communities. The National Institute of Aging and the National Institute on Drug Abuse are located in Baltimore, Maryland, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is in Research Triangle, North Carolina. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases NIAID maintains Rocky Mountain Labs in Hamilton, Montana,^[2] with an emphasis on virology.

The goal of NIH research is to acquire new knowledge to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability, from the rarest genetic disorder to the common cold. The NIH mission is to uncover new knowledge that will lead to better health for everyone. NIH works toward that mission by: conducting research in its own laboratories; supporting the research of non-Federal scientists in universities, medical schools, hospitals, and research institutions throughout the country and abroad; helping in the training of research investigators; and fostering communication of medical and health sciences information.

Contents 1 Institutes 2 Centers of the NIH 3 Office of the Director 4 Cancer 5 Economic impact 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

Institutes

Name	Acronym	Description	Est.
National Cancer Institute	NCI	Research and training aimed to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer.	1937
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases	NIAID	Research goals include striving to understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. The NIAID-funded Influenza Genome Sequencing Project is a collaborative effort designed to increase the genome knowledge base of influenza and help researchers understand how flu viruses evolve, spread and cause disease.[3]	1948
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research	NIDCR	Provides leadership for a national research program designed to understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious and inherited craniofacial-oral-dental diseases and disorders.	1948
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases	NIDDK	Conducts and supports research and provides leadership for a national program in diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolic diseases, digestive diseases and nutrition, and kidney, urologic, and hematologic diseases.	1948
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute	NHLBI	Provides leadership for a national program in diseases of the heart, blood vessels, lung, and blood; blood resources; and sleep disorders. Also has administrative responsibility for the NIH Woman's Health Initiative.	1948
National Institute of Mental Health	NIMH	Understanding, treatment, and prevention of mental illnesses through basic research on the brain and behavior, and through clinical, epidemiological, and services research.	1949
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke	NINDS	Supports and conducts research, both basic and clinical, on the normal and diseased nervous system, fosters the training of investigators in the basic and clinical neurosciences, and seeks better understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of neurological disorders.	1950
National Library of Medicine	NLM	NLM collects, organizes, and makes available biomedical science information to investigators, educators, and practitioners and carries out programs designed to strengthen medical library services in the United States. The NLM established the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) which is a central repository of biological information and includes the PubMed literature database and the gene database GenBank. The NCBI is one of the largest components of the NLM.	1956
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development	NICHD	NICHD researchs fertility, pregnancy, growth, development, and medical rehabilitation for the promotion of all aspects of child health.	1962
National Institute of General Medical Sciences	NIGMS	NIGMS supports basic biomedical research not targeted to specific diseases, funds studies on genes, proteins, and cells, supports research training programs that produce the next generation of biomedical scientists, has special programs to encourage underrepresented minorities to pursue biomedical research careers.	1962
National Eye Institute	NEI	Conducts and supports research that helps prevent and treat eye diseases and other disorders of vision.	1968
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences	NIEHS	Research on how environmental exposures, genetic susceptibility, and age interact to affect an individual's health.	1969
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism	NIAAA	NIAAA research is focused on improving the treatment and prevention of alcoholism and alcohol-related problems.	1970
National Institute on Drug Abuse	NIDA	NIDA supports and conducts research on drug abuse and addiction prevention, treatment, and policy.	1973
National Institute on Aging	NIA	Undertakes research on the biomedical, social, and behavioral aspects of the aging process, prevention of age-related diseases and disabilities, promotion of better quality of life for all older Americans.	1974
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases	NIAMS	NIAMS supports research into causes, treatment, and prevention of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases, the training of basic and clinical scientists to carry out this research, and the dissemination of information on research progress in these diseases.	1986
National Institute of Nursing Research	NINR	NINR supports clinical and basic research to establish a scientific basis for the care of individuals across the life span.	1986
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders	NIDCD	Conducts and supports biomedical research and research training on normal mechanisms as well as diseases and disorders of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language.	1988
National Human Genome Research Institute	NHGRI	Supports the NIH component of the Human Genome Project. NHGRI's Intramural Research Program develops and implements technology for understanding, diagnosing, and treating genetic diseases.	1989
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering	NIBIB	Promotes fundamental discoveries, design and development, and translation and assessment of technological capabilities in biomedical imaging and bioengineering, enabled by relevant areas of information science, physics, chemistry, mathematics, materials science, and computer sciences.	2000

Centers of the NIH

Regulation of therapeutic goods in the United States

Prescription drugs Over-the-counter drugs Law Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 Controlled Substances Act Prescription Drug Marketing Act Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act Hatch-Waxman exemption Government agencies United States Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration Drug Enforcement Administration National Institutes of Health Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Process Drug discovery Drug design Drug development New drug application Investigational new drug Clinical trial (Phase I, II, III, IV) Randomized controlled trial Pharmacovigilance Abbreviated New Drug Application Fast track approval Off-label use International coordination International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use Uppsala Monitoring Centre World Health Organization Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs Non-governmental organizations. Institute of Medicine Research on Adverse Drug events And Reports

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In addition to being divided by research area, NIH has many operating groups called centers which operate within across all of the Institutes.

Name	Acronym	Description	Est.
Center for Scientific Review	CSR	The CSR is the focal point at NIH for the conduct of initial peer review of grant and fellowship applications, implements ways to conduct referral and review.	1946
Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center	CC	The clinical research facility of the National Institutes of Health; provides patient care, services, and environment needed to initiate and support conduct of and training in clinical research.	1953
National Center for Research Resources	NCRR	Research projects and shared resources in biomedical technology, clinical research, comparative medicine, and research infrastructure.	1962
Center for Information Technology	CIT; formerly DCRT, OIRM, TCB	The CIT incorporates computers into the biomedical programs and administrative procedures of the NIH by conducting computational biosciences research, developing computer systems, and providing computer facilities.	1964
John E. Fogarty International Center	FIC	Promotes and supports scientific research and training internationally to reduce disparities in global health.	1968
Radiological Physics Center	RPC	Offers quality assurance to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that all participating institutions in NCI sponsored cooperative groups are following the guidelines for the physics-related aspects of their protocols.	1968
Quality Assurance Review Center	QARC	Provides radiotherapy quality assurance and diagnostic imaging data management for all of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) sponsored cooperative groups. It also contracts privately with the pharmaceutical industry for its services in clinical trials involving anti-cancer drugs.	1977
National Center for Biotechnology Information	NCBI	Established as a national resource for molecular biology information, NCBI creates public databases, conducts research in computational biology, develops software tools for analyzing genome data, and disseminates biomedical information - all for the better understanding of molecular processes affecting human health and disease.	1988
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine	NCCAM	Exploring complementary and alternative medical practices in the context of rigorous science, training researchers, disseminating authoritative information.	1992
National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities	NCMHD	NCMHD leads, coordinates, supports, and assesses the NIH effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities in minority groups; conduct and support basic, clinical, social, and behavioral research, reach out to minority and other health disparity communities.	1993
Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center[1]	VRC	The mission of the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) is to conduct research that facilitates the development of effective vaccines for human disease. The primary focus of research is the development of vaccines for AIDS.[4]	1999[5][6]
Bioinformatics Resource Centers	BRC	Provides genomic, proteomic, biochemical, and microbiological data from a wide range of emerging/re-emerging pathogens (NIAID Category A, B, and C). Contains eight sub-centers (the BRCs) each dedicated to a different group of pathogens. Data are presented in a database format accessible by Web interfaces, together with tools for analysis.	2004

Office of the Director

The Office of the Director is the central office at NIH. The OD is responsible for setting policy for NIH and for planning, managing, and coordinating the programs and activities of all the NIH components. Program offices in the Office of the Director are responsible for stimulating specific areas of research throughout NIH and for planning and supporting research and related activities. Current program areas are: minority health, women's health, AIDS research, disease prevention, and behavioral and social sciences research. ^[7]

Program offices within the Office of the Director fund research through the institutes:

Full name	Acronym	Role
Office of Extramural Research	OER	provides guidance to institutes in research and training programs conducted through extramural (grant, contract, cooperative agreement) programs
Office of Intramural Research	OIR	coordinates research conducted directly by NIH personnel through intramural programs
Office of Management	OM	responsible for management and financial functions of the NIH
Office of Administration	OA	advises the NIH Director and staff on administration and management; develops and implements policies, and provides oversight in the areas of information resources management, management assessment, grant administration and contract management, procurement, and logistics
Office of AIDS Research	OAR	formulates scientific policy for, and recommends allocation of research resources for AIDS research at NIH
Office of Biotechnology Activities	OBA	"monitors scientific progress in human genetics research in order to anticipate future developments, including ethical, legal, and social concerns, in basic and clinical research involving Recombinant DNA, Genetic Technologies, and Xenotransplantation"[8]
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research	OBSSR	advises the NIH Director and other key officials on matters relating to research on the role of human behavior in the development of health, prevention of disease, and therapeutic intervention
Office of Communications and Public Liaison	OCPL	advises the Director and communicates information about NIH policies, programs, and research results to the general public
Office of Community Liaison	OCL	advises the Director, plans, directs and oversees activities to promote collaboration between NIH and its community, and ensures effective communication on policy and programs involving the community
Office of Disease Prevention	ODP	coordinates NIH activities regarding the application of research to disease prevention, nutrition and medical practice
Office of Intramural Training and Education	OITE	provides a comprehensive guide to postdoctoral training opportunities available at the NIH
Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management	OEODM	advises the Director and NIH staff on matters related to equal employment opportunity programs and policies
Office of Financial Management	OFM	advises the NIH Director and staff and provides leadership and direction for NIH financial management activities; develops policies and instructions for budget preparation and presentation and administers allocation of funds and manages a system of fund and budgetary controls
Office of Human Resources	OHR	advises the NIH Director and staff on human resource management; directs central human resource management services; and provides NIH leadership and planning on human resource program development
Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis	OLPA	provides legislative analysis, policy development, and liaison with the United States Congress[9]
Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives	OPASI	provides the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its constituent Institutes and Centers (ICs) with the methods and information necessary to manage their large and complex scientific portfolios, identifies – in concert with multiple other inputs – important areas of emerging scientific opportunities or rising public health challenges, and assists in the acceleration of investments in these areas, focusing on those involving multiple ICs
Office of Research on Women's Health	ORWH	serves as a focal point for women's health research at the NIH. The ORWH promotes, stimulates, and supports efforts to improve the health of women through biomedical and behavioral research. ORWH works in partnership with the NIH institutes and centers to ensure that women's health research is part of the scientific framework at NIH and throughout the scientific community
Office of Science Education	OSE	coordinates science education activities at the NIH and develops and sponsors science education projects in house. These programs serve elementary, secondary, and college students and teachers and the public. Free curriculum supplements developed in collaboration with curriculum writers, NIH divisions, and NIH scientists are available online and in hard copy at Curriculum Supplements. The OSE has also developed an interactive health and medical science career exploration web site for middle school and high school students called LifeWorks. Other educational resources from throughout the NIH are found on the OSE main page.
Office of Rare Diseases	ORDR	supports research on rare diseases and collaborates with related organizations such as the National Organization for Rare Disorders. The Office of Rare Diseases was first established within the Office of the Director in 1993, and then by public law statute in 2002.[10]

Cancer

The 2010 United States federal budget invests over $6 billion for cancer research at the National Institutes of Health as part of the multi-year commitment to double cancer research funding.^[11]

Economic impact

In 2000, a report from from a Joint Economic Committee of Congress outlined the benefits of NIH research. It noted that some econometric studies had given its research, which was funded at $16 billion a year in 2000, a rate of return of 25 to 40 percent per year. It also found that of the 21 drugs with the highest therapeutic impact on society introduced between 1965 and 1992, public funding was "instrumental" for 15.^[12]

References

1. ^ Medical Research Spending Doubled Over Past Decade, Neil Osterweil, MedPage Today, September 20, 2005.
2. ^ About NIAID, NIAID web page, date accessed January 14, 2007.
3. ^ Microbial Sequencing Centers, MSC, DMID, NIAID, NIH
4. ^ http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/about/organization/vrc/about/goals.htm
5. ^ http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/about/organization/vrc/about/meetings.htm
6. ^ http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/about/organization/vrc/about/background.htm
7. ^ NIH - Office of the Director
8. ^ About OBA
9. ^ http://olpa.od.nih.gov/about/mission/default.asp
10. ^ "About ORDR". ORDR. http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/AboutUs.aspx. Retrieved on February 14, 2009. 
11. ^ http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/A_New_Era_of_Responsibility2.pdf
12. ^ U.S. Joint Economic Committee. (2000). [opa.faseb.org/pdf/2008/nih_research_benefits.pdf The Benefits of Medical Research and the Role of the NIH].

See also

• National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award
• The Proteolysis Map
• United States Public Health Service

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: National Institutes of Health

• NIH homepage
  • NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices
  • NIH Health Information
  • History of NIH
• NIH Podcast official podcast
• National Cancer Institute
• NIH Budget: Summary of U.S. Federal Government FY 2008 Budget for biomedical science
• Quality Assurance Review Center
• Radiological Physics Center
• ClinicalTrials.gov - record of clinical trials including participation requirements
• AIDSinfo.nih.gov A comprehensive resource providing HIV/AIDS treatment and clinical trials information
• Vaccine Research Center Information about NIH NIAID vaccine research clinical trials
• Should the NIH R01 Grant Application Be Shorter? Results of National Public Survey and NIH Peer Review Advisory Committee
• National Institutes Of Health Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register
  • RSS Feed
• Overview of Different Kinds of Grants
• The Children's Inn

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