National Institutes of Health (NIH)
BIRN is sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a unit of the Bethesda, Maryland-based National Institutes of Health (NIH) – which itself is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
NIH is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research. The agency provides almost $28 billion annually to investigate the causes, treatments, and cures for diseases and disorders ranging from rare conditions to the common cold. NIH operates 27 Institutes and Centers, employs 18,000 individuals, and supports researchers in every US state and around the globe.
National Institute of General Medicine Sciences (NIGMS)
The NIGMS supports research that increases understanding of life processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. NIGMS-funded researchers seek to answer important scientific questions in fields such as cell biology, biophysics, genetics, developmental biology, pharmacology, physiology, biological chemistry, biomedical technology, bioinformatics, computational biology, selected aspects of the behavioral sciences and specific cross-cutting clinical areas that affect multiple organ systems.
Please see the NIGMS site for more information.
