NIGMS Communications and Public Liaison Branch
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Director Jon R. Lorsch, Ph.D., has announced the selection of Mercedes Rubio, Ph.D., to direct the Institute's Division for Research Capacity Building (DRCB). Rubio is expected to assume this new role on November 17.
DRCB has four major grant components: Institutional Development Awards, Native American Research Centers for Health, Support for Research Excellence, and Science Education Partnership Awards. These programs support research, career development, and research infrastructure improvements in institutions, states, and jurisdictions that have historically received low levels of support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“DRCB supports many important programs that fund research and capacity building initiatives that are key to moving science forward, particularly in under-resourced states and institutions,” said Lorsch. “Dr. Rubio’s vast experience in managing a range of research training and capacity building programs, coupled with her strong commitment to broadening participation in biomedical research, make her an ideal selection for this role,” he added.
Rubio, a medical sociologist by training, is currently chief of the Predoctoral Basic Biomedical and Medical Scientist Training Programs Branch in NIGMS’ Division of Training and Workforce Development. She also manages research training, scientific conference, and research on intervention grants and has been the program director for the NIH Diversity Program Consortium’s National Research Mentoring Network.
Prior to becoming a branch chief at NIGMS in 2022, Rubio was chief of the Education and Training Section in the Division of Clinical Innovations at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, where she managed Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) grants and oversaw CTSA consortium-wide clinical and translational science workforce efforts. Before that, she managed grant portfolios at NIGMS and the National Institute of Mental Health, supporting research education, career development, and training programs.
Rubio has contributed her expertise on several NIH-wide efforts, including the Advisory Committee to the Director’s Working Group on the Physician-Scientist Workforce, the Training Advisory Committee, and the UNITE-E Committee Implementation Team.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from California State University, Bakersfield, and her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Michigan, where she also performed postdoctoral research at the Institute for Social Research and School of Nursing.
"As the director of DRCB, I look forward to working with NIGMS staff to strengthen our nation’s biomedical research capacity through engagement with internal and external stakeholders and professional scientific organizations,” said Rubio.
