NHGRI’s intramural research program enters a new phase

Since its launch in 1993, NHGRI’s intramural research program (IRP) has grown and evolved with the evolving landscape of genomics research. For the past three decades, the institute’s IRP has been a leader in genomics and its application to human health. After a period of growth and restructuring, coinciding with the completion of Charles Rotimis’ second year as IRP Chief Science Officer, the IRP enters a new phase of growth with the continued promise of conducting basic genomic, translational, and really great clinic.

The IRP is home to more than 60 researchers and over 500 total employees, who together apply their diverse scientific expertise to answer questions on the front lines of genomics. Additionally, researchers include the directors of many other NIH institutes and programs, whose research groups are housed within the NHGRI IRP. These intramural researchers are spread across seven branches/centers, reflecting a recent restructuring that includes the addition of a new Metabolic Medicine branch.

During 2022 and 2023, the IRP was reviewed by a Blue Ribbon Panel, a group of external genomics experts convened to provide NHGRI and NIH leadership with a review of strengths, weaknesses, and areas of potential program growth. The panel released a report summarizing its recommendations, noting that the new phase of IRP reflects positive growth over the past 30 years.

The panels report also outlines the outstanding scientific productivity of the IRP, including 1,260 papers published by intramural researchers between 2018 and 2023. These publications demonstrate the highly collaborative nature of the IRP, which includes collaborations within NHGRI, across NIH, with institutions in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, and with international partners from more than 100 countries. The importance of some of these publications is demonstrated by their reach beyond the genomics community, generating considerable media coverage.

The scientific success of the IRP is partly due to the institutional commitment to support the work of individual researchers with respect to specific research projects. This approach makes the IRP well positioned to support long-term studies and support high-risk, high-reward projects, both of which can be difficult to fund using many other funding mechanisms.

Additionally, NHGRI has one of the most impressive array of genomics education opportunities in the world, supporting trainees’ career development across the full spectrum of research and clinical domains. Training opportunities within the IRP continue to grow, as evidenced by the recent addition of the Future Leaders Advancing Genomic Sciences and Health Innovation (FLAGSHIP) postdoctoral research program, which was created to provide meaningful training and mentoring opportunities to intramural postdoctoral researchers with an emphasis on enhancing the diversity of the genomics workforce.

Meanwhile, the IRP has a lot to look forward to in its next phase. There are initial plans to launch searches to recruit researchers who will invigorate the IRP with new scientific ideas, and the IRP is currently recruiting for a director for the new Center for Genomics and Data Science Research. With this center focused on developing and applying cutting-edge computational approaches to analyzing genomic data at scale, the center director will be positioned to advance a critically important area of ​​genomics research within the IRP.

Dr. Rotimi summarized the current status of the NHGRI IRP at 99^th meeting of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research, as well as co-chairs of the Blue Ribbon Panel. These recordings can be found on NHGRI’s GenomeTV YouTube channel.