NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health®

Thanks to decades of research, Americans are living longer. Yet Chronic diseases still affect large swaths of the population and are unevenly distributed creating health disparities. These chronic illness are common and costly, and many are preventable. NIH Researchers — Basic, Translation, clinical and community based — are tackling these challenges head on.

Only a few centuries ago, it seemed fanciful that a physical organ, the brain, could control activities such as thinking and feeling. We now know that this amazing biological machine made up of roughly 86 billion neurons and trillions of nerve circuits is the command center for many of the body's vital processes.  It is also central to chronic conditions including mental illness, addiction and movement disorders.

To achieve its goal of turning discovery into health and to maintain its role as the world's premier biomedical research agency, NIH must support the best scientific ideas and brightest scientific minds.  That means looking to the future and ensuring that we have a strong and diverse workforce to catalyze discoveries in all fields of biomedicine including emergent areas like data science.

In a cyclic fashion, technology drives science, and science creates technologies to tackle scientific problems as they arise.  Technology development often requires input from many times of minds, including not only biologists and chemists but also mathematicians, engineers, and computer scientists.  21st Century biomedicine is a hotbed of discovery of new devices and tools that promise to revolutionize health.

Scientific and technological breakthroughs generated by NIH research have helped more people in the United States and all over the world live longer, healthier lives.  These advancements were achieved by making disease less deadly through effective interventions to prevent and treat illness and disability.

Historically, doctors have had to make most recommendations about disease prevention and treatment based on the expected response of an average patient.  This one-size-fits-all approach works well for some patients and some conditions, but not so much for others. Precision medicine is an innovative approach that takes into account individual differences in patients’ genes, environments, and lifestyles.  Millions of people have already been touched by the area of precision medicine that has grown directly from biomedical research.

NIH research saves lives and strengthens our economy through job creation and improved quality of life for millions of Americans. There is little doubt that this research investment is one of the wisest moves we can make as a nation.

To carry out this mission, NIH supports:

• Basic research...to fuel progress
• Translational research...to move basic discoveries forward
• Clinical research...to turn discoveries into prevention, treatments, and cures
• A creative and diverse workforce...since people are our most important resource
• A balanced research portfolio...to ensure high return on investment for U.S. taxpayers

Revolutionary ideas often come from unexpected directions. Many concepts and tools central to understanding and improving health have come from basic, untargeted research. NIH not only supports these basic advances but also conducts the clinical and translational research that transforms discoveries into medical practice.