On March 18, President Biden signed the John Lewis National Institute of Minority Health Disparities (NIMHD) Research Endowment Revitalization Act of 2021. It was my honor to be present in the Oval Office for the signing. I’m standing at the far left along with (from l – r): Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragán of California; Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Congressman Frank Pallone of New Jersey; Congresswoman Nikema Williams of Georgia; and Eliseo Pérez-Stable, NIMHD director. The Act expands eligibility to help institutions build research infrastructure and recruit, train, and maintain a diverse student body and faculty. Credit: The White House
I recently enjoyed taking part in a video discussion of the future of genomics with Eric Lander, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (lower left); Charles Rotimi, NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute; and Claire Fraser, University of Maryland’s Institute for Genome Sciences. The Jan. 13, 2021 event celebrated the 25th anniversary of the first complete bacterial genome, the 20th anniversary of the publication of the human genome, and the 15th anniversary of the first human metagenome. I’m also excited to report that two days later, President-elect Joe Biden asked me to stay on as NIH Director and nominated Lander to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and serve as our nation’s first Cabinet-level Science Adviser.
