Report: Collins to lead NIH

Francis Collins, the geneticist who led the Human Genome Project, is close to taking over the top spot at the National Institutes of Health, according to a linkurl:report;http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-nih-collins23-2009may23,0,5889122.story by __Bloomberg News__. Collins, who was the director of the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute from 1993 to 2008, is in the final stages of being screened by the administration of US President Barack Obama, an unnamed source told _

Written byBob Grant

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Collins, who was the director of the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute from 1993 to 2008, is in the final stages of being screened by the administration of US President Barack Obama, an unnamed source told __Bloomberg__. Elias Zerhouni, Collins' would-be predecessor, voiced his approval for the pick, telling __Bloomberg__ that Collins has "done things many scientists wish they could do once in their lifetime, and he's done it repeatedly." Collins recently unveiled a new foundation, BioLogos, that promotes "the search for truth in both the natural and spiritual realms, and seeks to harmonize these different perspectives," according to the organization's linkurl:Web site.;http://biologos.org/ Collins, who is an evangelical Christian, has linkurl:said;http://www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/2009/05/04/francis-collins-a-scientific-basis-for-god.html that his new foundation is an attempt to resolve Christian faith with scientific evidence, especially with regard to evolution. In 2006 he published a bestselling book, __The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief__, that stirred some controversy in the scientific community.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:FDA head chosen, NIH names swirling;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55507/
[12th March 2009]*linkurl:Collins to industry, top of NIH?;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54702/
[28th May 2008]*linkurl:Francis Collins leaves NHGRI;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54701/
[28th May 2008]

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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