STAT+: Key science officials detail their plans for a new research agency — and Congress is getting closer to funding it
WASHINGTON — Two key federal health officials are pitching a new branch of the National Institutes of Health that would take on higher-risk research than the rest of the agency, in a bid to “transform important areas of medicine and health.”
The new vision, from Biden science adviser Eric Lander and NIH Director Francis Collins, fleshes out new details for an initiative President Biden pitched as a new research agency intended to “end cancer as we know it.” Their plan would push the new agency to focus on far broader goals, like inventing smart watches that continuously monitor blood pressure, developing vaccines that can be designed and approved within 100 days, and finding new techniques for tracking the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on the brain. ARPA-H will also focus on eliminating health disparities, they said.
