The Advisory Committee to the Director, NIH (ACD) is a group knowledgeable in the fields of research pertinent to the NIH mission. It includes individuals from the academic and private sector research communities as well as representatives of the general public.

The ACD meets in person twice a year to provide advice on a range of NIH activities. At almost every meeting, the NIH Director invites an institute or center director to present information about his or her organization, including his or her vision of its key features.

I was delighted when Dr. Collins invited me to present at the most recent ACD meeting. In my talk, I highlighted the Institute’s focus on investigator-initiated research and aspects of our role in training and workforce development. I also described some advances in five areas across NIGMS, including structural biology and the Protein Structure Initiative, RNA biology, pharmacogenomics, the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) postdoctoral program and the Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) program.

A video of my talk and a question-and-answer session is now available. It begins at minute 138:45 with an introduction by Dr. Collins.