Overview

 

From its humble beginnings in 1887 as a one-room laboratory, the National Institutes of Health has grown into a multi-billion-dollar federal agency with 27 institutes and centers, each with their own portfolio of research focused on particular diseases or body systems. All but three receive their funding directly from Congress and administer their own budgets. NIH Institutes and Centers collaborate and work together on research initiatives because many health issues cut across multiple disease areas.

Roughly 82% of NIH’s $45 billion budget is invested each year in biomedical research conducted at academic and medical institutions across the country and around the world.

 

NIH also conducts research as part of its Intramural Research Program on the NIH campus and at satellite campuses across the nation, including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences located in Durham, North Carolina. NIH investment in research has been responsible for medical advancements that have saved countless lives. These advancements include contributing to a high cure rate for common childhood leukemia, making HIV/AIDS, once a fatal diagnosis, now a treatable disease, and developing vaccines to prevent diseases like hepatitis, human papillomavirus, COVID-19, and more.