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STAT+: Eric Green is out as head of National Human Genome Research Institute
The longtime director of the National Human Genome Research Institute is stepping down, as the larger NIH braces for more changes.
Amid the Trump administration’s reshaping of America’s public health authorities, Eric Green, longtime director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, has abruptly left his role, according to two NHGRI employees with knowledge of the situation and internal communications reviewed by STAT.
Green, who held that role for 16 years, is the first director of one of the National Institutes of Health’s 27 institutes to leave his position in President Trump’s second term.
The move comes as the NIH is bracing for more layoffs, as well as a restructuring aimed at centralizing some of the agency’s core functions. Republicans in Congress have floated a plan to reorganize the NIH from 27 institutes to 15, establishing director term limits, and restricting certain kinds of infectious disease research. It remains unclear if Green’s departure is a harbinger of more shakeups to the agency and its $47 billion biomedical research portfolio.
