Dr. Francis Collins on NIH’s purpose-driven agenda for epigenomics research

Abstract

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, created the Common Fund as a model for cultivating new technologies and stimulating knowledge production. To date it has funded a series of short-term, high-impact initiatives known collectively as the Common Fund Programs, which are designed to support crosscutting, trans-NIH initiatives. (The NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program is part of the Common Fund.) The resulting knowledge bank and research tools are made available to all the NIH’s constituent institutes and centers to support future research and, hopefully, speed translation of basic research into therapies.