National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The main US government body in charge of biomedical and public health research is the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Having been established in the late 1880s, it is currently a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The majority of NIH buildings are situated in Bethesda, Maryland, and other close-by suburbs of the Washington metropolitan region. Other main buildings are situated in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, while smaller satellite buildings are dispersed all across the country. Through its Intramural Research Program (IRP) and Extramural Research Program, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) both carry out their own internal scientific research.

The largest biomedical research organization in the world as of 2013, the IRP had 1,200 principal investigators and more than 4,000 postdoctoral fellows working in basic, translational, and clinical research. As of 2003, the extramural arm provided 28% of the $26.4 billion in annual biomedical research funding spent in the United States. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is made up of 27 different institutes and centers that focus on various biomedical fields. Thanks to the NIH, numerous scientific breakthroughs have been made, such as the development of hepatitis, Haemophilus influenza (HIB), and human papillomavirus vaccines as well as the use of lithium to treat bipolar disorder and prevent tooth decay (HPV).

Website: https://www.nih.gov/