NIH Launches National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

President Barack Obama has signed the Fiscal Year 2012 spending bill enabling the National Institutes of Health to establish the new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). This action marks a major milestone in efforts to revolutionize the science of translation. NCATS provides our nation with an opportunity to forge a new paradigm for translational research that involves government, academia, industry, philanthropy, and patient advocacy groups. Through partnerships that capitalize upon our respective strengths, I believe we can work together to achieve our common goal: speeding the movement of scientific discoveries from the lab to patients.

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Institutes of Health