Study Echineacea on Your Own Dime

In his last blog post before resigning as director of the National Institutes of Health in December 2021, Francis Collins touted many of the important areas of research NIH conducted or funded in his more than 12 years leading the organization, “from innovative immunotherapies for treating cancer to the gift of mRNA vaccines to combat a pandemic.” He could have added to this list other frontiers of medicine explored by NIH-supported researchers: how the human brain works; the health benefits of the trillions of microbes that call our bodies home; and technological advances such as mapping the atomic structures of proteins, editing genetic material, and designing improved gene therapies. But while such a record deserves a victory lap, a full accounting of Collins’s tenure should also include a list of NIH’s longstanding shortcomings.

Most of NIH’s substantial budget goes to fund grant proposals from researchers at academic institutions around the country…