NIH
The National Institutes of Health is an institution of the United States government which focuses on medical research. The Institutes are located in Bethesda, Maryland.
The predecessor of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began in 1887 as the Laboratory of Hygiene. It was grew and was reorganized in 1930 by the Ransdell Act into the National Institutes of Health. Today it is one of the world's foremost medical research centers, and the Federal focal point for medical research in the U.S. The NIH, headed by the Office of the Director and comprising 27 separate Institutes and Centers, is one of eight health agencies of the Public Health Service which, in turn, is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The current NIH Director is Elias Zerhouni.
Simply described, 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.
Institutes of the NIH
- National Cancer Institute (NCI): research and training aimed to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Est. 1937.
- National Eye Institute (NEI): conducts and supports research that helps prevent and treat eye diseases and other disorders of vision. Est. 1968.
- 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. Est. 1948.
- Human Genome Project. Its Intramural Research Program develops and implements technology for understanding, diagnosing, and treating genetic diseases. Est. 1989.
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID): research striving to understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. Est. 1948.
- National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (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. Est. 1986.
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS): supports basic biomedical research that is 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. Est. 1962.
- 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. Est. 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. Est. 1950.
- National Library of Medicine (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. Est. 1956.
Centers of the NIH
