NIH director steps down, hoping that president will step up

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 month 3 weeks (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Over the past several years, Dr. Elias Zerhouni has seen the U.S.'s National Institutes of Health through funding caps and Bush's ban on funding for embryonic stem cell research. He defended sexual research to a conservative Congress and he forbade NIH scientists from doing industrial consulting, a situation that had created some conflicts of interest.

And now he's off.

Zerhouni says that he's chosen now to depart because he wants the next presidential administration to focus on NIH as quickly as possible. Choosing a new director would force the new president to do that.

Keywords: funding politics NIH