Francis Collins (geneticist)
Encyclopedia
Francis Sellers Collins (born April 14, 1950), is an American
physician
-geneticist
, noted for his discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project
(HGP). He currently serves as Director of the National Institutes of Health
in Bethesda, Maryland
. Prior to being appointed Director, he founded and was president of the BioLogos Foundation
. Collins has written a book about his Christian faith, and Pope Benedict XVI
appointed Francis Collins to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
.
, Collins was home schooled until the sixth grade. He attended Robert E. Lee High School. Through most of his high school and college years, he aspired to be a chemist, and had little interest in what he then considered the "messy" field of biology. What he refers to as his "formative education" was received at the University of Virginia
, where he earned a B.S.
in Chemistry in 1970. He went on to attain a Ph.D.
in physical chemistry
at Yale University
in 1974. While at Yale, however, a course in biochemistry sparked his interest in the subject. After consulting with his old mentor from the University of Virginia, Carl Trindle, he changed fields and enrolled in medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
, earning there an M.D.
in 1977.
From 1978 to 1981, he served a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill
. He then returned to Yale, where he was named a Fellow in Human Genetics at the medical school from 1981 to 1984. He worked under the direction of Sherman Weissman, and in 1984 they published an important work, a paper titled Directional cloning of DNA fragments at a large distance from an initial probe: a circularization method. This method was named chromosome jumping
, to remark the contrast with the then current method of chromosome walking, that required to walk along the DNA chain.
He joined the University of Michigan
in 1984, rising to the rank of Professor of Internal Medicine and Human Genetics. He heightened his reputation as a gene hunter. That gene-hunting approach, which he named "positional cloning", developed into a powerful component of modern molecular genetics.
In the 1980s, several scientific teams were working to identify the genes for cystic fibrosis
. Toward the end of the decade, progress had been made, but Lap-Chee Tsui
, heading the team working at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, considered that a shortcut was needed, to speed up the process. For this purpose, he contacted Francis Collins, who had recently developed a technique of "chromosome jumping". Collins joined the team, and combining this technique with Tsui's previous research the gene was discovered in June 1989. The discovery was covered by Science Sept 8, 1989. This was soon followed by other scientific teams genetic discoveries, including isolation of the genes for Huntington's disease
, neurofibromatosis
, and multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1
.
Mention of his guitar
playing and motor-cycle riding can often be found in articles about him. Collins' music draws on a sense of humor and fun. While directing the National Human Genome Research Institute, he formed a rock band with other NIH scientists. In its rare appearances, the band entertained selected Maryland and Washington, D.C.-area audiences, such as science writers. Sometimes the band, called "The Directors", dueled with a rock band from Johns Hopkins University
, led by cancer researcher Bert Vogelstein
. Lyrics of The Directors' songs included spoofs of rock and gospel classics re-written to address the challenges of contemporary biomedical research.
as Director of the National Center for Human Genome Research
, which became National Human Genome Research Institute
(NHGRI) in 1997. As Director, he oversaw the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium.
In 1994, he founded NHGRI's Division of Intramural Research (DIR), a collection of investigator-directed laboratories that conduct genome research on the NIH campus and has developed into one of the nation's premier research centers in human genetics.
The milestones of NHGRI during the time Collins was director are documented in the article List of events in NHGRI history.
A working draft of the human genome
was announced in June 2000, and Collins was joined by US President
Bill Clinton
and biologist Craig Venter
in making the announcement. Venter and Collins thus shared the "Biography of the Year" title from A&E Network
. An initial analysis was published in February 2001. HGP scientists continued to work toward finishing the sequence of all three billion base pairs by 2003, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Watson
and Crick's
seminal publication of the structure of DNA
. In 2005 Collins and Venter were also honored as two of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News & World Report and the Harvard Center for Public Leadership Collins's commitment to free, rapid access to genomic information helped to make all data immediately available to the worldwide scientific community.
One of the main activities at NHGRI during his tenure as director was the composition of the haplotype map of the human genome. The now-completed "hap map" project produced a catalog of genetic variations—called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)—which is now being widely used to discover genetic variations correlated with disease risk.
In addition to his basic genetic research and scientific leadership, Collins is known for his close attention to ethical and legal issues in genetics. He has been a strong advocate for protecting the privacy of genetic information and has served as a national leader in efforts to prohibit gene-based insurance discrimination. Building on his own experiences as a physician volunteer in a rural missionary hospital in Nigeria
, Collins is also very interested in opening avenues for genome research to benefit the health of people living in developing nations.
Collins announced his resignation from NHGRI on May 28, 2008, saying he would continue to lead an intramural research laboratory as a "volunteer"; this will allow several graduate and postdoctoral students to complete projects undertaken under his tenure.
He has received numerous awards and honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine
and the National Academy of Sciences
. He was a Kilby International Awards
recipient in 1993. In 2007, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
. And, in 2008, he was awarded the National Medal of Science
.
Barack Obama
nominated him to the position of Director of the National Institutes of Health. The US Senate unanimously confirmed him for this post, announced by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
on August 7, 2009.
According to Science
, Collins "is known as a skilled administrator and excellent communicator" and President Obama's nomination of him to lead the NIH "did not come as a big surprise", and produced many praising analysis from researchers and biomedical groups. It also found critics, mainly due to his outspoken Christian faith. Others think that this fact may prove to be positive to establish bridges with those that see gene-based research as contrary to religious values. His appointment was welcomed by the CEO of the AAAS
and by Bernadine Healy
.
In the summer of 2009 some preeminent scientists were meeting in Cambridge, England, celebrating the hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of publication of "The Origin of Species
" and word arrived that President Obama had chosen Collins to head the NIH, and, according to Nobel laureate Harold Varmus who was also present, some of them were alarmed. Varmus had been a NIH director under Bill Clinton, and as such, Collins boss. He tried to calm the distress by saying that he "is a terrific scientist, and very well organized and a great spokesperson for the N.I.H., has terrific connections in Congress, and is a delightful person to work with". In November of 2011, Collins was included on The New Republic's list of Washington's most powerful, least famous people.
In October 2009, shortly after his nomination as NIH director, Collins stated in an interview in the New York Times,“I have made it clear that I have no religious agenda for the N.I.H., and I think the vast majority of scientists have been reassured by that and have moved on.”
On October 1, 2009, Collins appeared for the second time on The Colbert Report, discussing his leadership at the NIH and other topics such as personalized medicine
and stem cell research.
Collins was nominated by the National Institutes of Health
to be one of the USA Science and Engineering Festival
's Nifty Fifty Speakers to speak about his work and career to middle and high school students in October 2010.
A new center at NIH was slated to open in October 2011, and to be called the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to help develop new drugs. Dr. Collins, frustrated by the declining productivity in the pharmaceutical industry, is leading the effort. For it to work, they have to close one of the 27 institutes already at NIH and give its functions to the new center—something that has never been done before. The idea is to downgrade the National Center for Research Resources, and give some of its functions to NCATS. As of January 2011, over 1000 comments were archived about the proposed NCATS. Nevertheless, in September 2011 there were doubts about the possibility to meet the deadline, because of delays in Congressional approval.
. However, dealing with dying patients led him to question his religious views, and he investigated various faiths. He familiarized himself with the evidence for and against God in cosmology, and used Mere Christianity
by C. S. Lewis
as a foundation to re-examine his religious view. He eventually came to a conclusion, and finally became an Evangelical
Christian during a hike on a fall afternoon. He has described himself as a "serious Christian".
In his 2006 book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
, Collins considers scientific discoveries an "opportunity to worship". In his book Collins examines and subsequently rejects Young Earth creationism
and intelligent design
. His own belief system is theistic evolution
or evolutionary creation which he prefers to term BioLogos. He appeared in December 2006 on The Colbert Report television show
and in a March 2007 Fresh Air
radio interview
to discuss this book.
While not outspoken on the subject, Collins also seems to hold a "pro-life" view of the abortion issue. In a 1998 interview with Scientific American
, he stated that he is "intensely uncomfortable with abortion as a solution to anything" and does not "perceive a precise moment at which life begins other than the moment of conception".
In an interview with National Geographic published in February 2007, John Horgan, an agnostic journalist, criticized Collins' description of agnosticism as "a cop-out". In response, Collins clarified his position on agnosticism so as not to include "earnest agnostics who have considered the evidence and still don't find an answer. I was reacting to the agnosticism I see in the scientific community, which has not been arrived at by a careful examination of the evidence. I went through a phase when I was a casual agnostic, and I am perhaps too quick to assume that others have no more depth than I did".
During a debate with the biologist Richard Dawkins
, Collins stated that God is the explanation of those features of the universe that science finds difficult to explain (such as the values of certain physical constant
s favoring life), and that God himself does not need an explanation since he is beyond the universe. Dawkins called this "the mother and father of all cop-outs" and "an incredible evasion of the responsibility to explain", to which Collins responded "I do object to the assumption that anything that might be outside of nature is ruled out of the conversation. That's an impoverished view of the kinds of questions we humans can ask, such as 'Why am I here?', 'What happens after we die?' If you refuse to acknowledge their appropriateness, you end up with a zero probability of God after examining the natural world because it doesn't convince you on a proof basis. But if your mind is open about whether God might exist, you can point to aspects of the universe that are consistent with that conclusion".
Collins remains firm in his rejection of intelligent design, and for this reason was not asked to participate in the 2008 documentary
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
, which tries, among other things, to draw a direct link between evolution and atheism. Walt Ruloff, a producer for the film, claimed that Collins was "toeing the party line" by rejecting intelligent design, which Collins called "just ludicrous".
In 2009, Collins founded the BioLogos Foundation
to "contribute to the public voice that represents the harmony of science and faith". He served as the foundation's president until he was confirmed as director of the NIH.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
-geneticist
Geneticist
A geneticist is a biologist who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer. Some geneticists perform experiments and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of skills. A geneticist is also a Consultant or...
, noted for his discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project
Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project is an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional...
(HGP). He currently serves as Director of the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
in Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
. Prior to being appointed Director, he founded and was president of the BioLogos Foundation
BioLogos Foundation
The BioLogos Foundation is a Christian advocacy group established by Francis Collins in 2007. BioLogos aims to address the core themes of science and religion, and emphasize a compatibility between science and Christian faith....
. Collins has written a book about his Christian faith, and Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
appointed Francis Collins to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
Pontifical Academy of Sciences
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is a scientific academy of the Vatican, founded in 1936 by Pope Pius XI. It is placed under the protection of the reigning Supreme Pontiff. Its aim is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences and the study of related...
.
Early years
Raised on a small farm in Virginia's Shenandoah ValleyShenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...
, Collins was home schooled until the sixth grade. He attended Robert E. Lee High School. Through most of his high school and college years, he aspired to be a chemist, and had little interest in what he then considered the "messy" field of biology. What he refers to as his "formative education" was received at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, where he earned a B.S.
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
in Chemistry in 1970. He went on to attain a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in physical chemistry
Physical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic, atomic, subatomic, and particulate phenomena in chemical systems in terms of physical laws and concepts...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1974. While at Yale, however, a course in biochemistry sparked his interest in the subject. After consulting with his old mentor from the University of Virginia, Carl Trindle, he changed fields and enrolled in medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
, earning there an M.D.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
in 1977.
From 1978 to 1981, he served a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
. He then returned to Yale, where he was named a Fellow in Human Genetics at the medical school from 1981 to 1984. He worked under the direction of Sherman Weissman, and in 1984 they published an important work, a paper titled Directional cloning of DNA fragments at a large distance from an initial probe: a circularization method. This method was named chromosome jumping
Chromosome jumping
Chromosome jumping is a tool of molecular biology that is used in the physical mapping of genomes. It is related to several other tools used for the same purpose, including chromosome walking....
, to remark the contrast with the then current method of chromosome walking, that required to walk along the DNA chain.
He joined the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
in 1984, rising to the rank of Professor of Internal Medicine and Human Genetics. He heightened his reputation as a gene hunter. That gene-hunting approach, which he named "positional cloning", developed into a powerful component of modern molecular genetics.
In the 1980s, several scientific teams were working to identify the genes for cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
. Toward the end of the decade, progress had been made, but Lap-Chee Tsui
Lap-Chee Tsui
Professor Lap-chee Tsui, OC, O.Ont is a Chinese-Canadian geneticist and currently the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Hong Kong.-Personal life:Tsui was born in Shanghai...
, heading the team working at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, considered that a shortcut was needed, to speed up the process. For this purpose, he contacted Francis Collins, who had recently developed a technique of "chromosome jumping". Collins joined the team, and combining this technique with Tsui's previous research the gene was discovered in June 1989. The discovery was covered by Science Sept 8, 1989. This was soon followed by other scientific teams genetic discoveries, including isolation of the genes for Huntington's disease
Huntington's disease
Huntington's disease, chorea, or disorder , is a neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to cognitive decline and dementia. It typically becomes noticeable in middle age. HD is the most common genetic cause of abnormal involuntary writhing movements called chorea...
, neurofibromatosis
Neurofibromatosis
Neurofibromatosis is a genetically-inherited disorder in which the nerve tissue grows tumors that may be benign or may cause serious damage by compressing nerves and other tissues...
, and multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1
Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1
Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 or Wermer's syndrome is part of a group of disorders that affect the endocrine system.-Explanation:...
.
Mention of his guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
playing and motor-cycle riding can often be found in articles about him. Collins' music draws on a sense of humor and fun. While directing the National Human Genome Research Institute, he formed a rock band with other NIH scientists. In its rare appearances, the band entertained selected Maryland and Washington, D.C.-area audiences, such as science writers. Sometimes the band, called "The Directors", dueled with a rock band from Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, led by cancer researcher Bert Vogelstein
Bert Vogelstein
Bert Vogelstein is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at The Johns Hopkins University. He clarified the role of the gene p53, which repairs DNA in dividing cells and destroys the cell if its DNA cannot be repaired. Damaged p53 is responsible for half of all cancers...
. Lyrics of The Directors' songs included spoofs of rock and gospel classics re-written to address the challenges of contemporary biomedical research.
Leadership at NHGRI
Collins accepted an invitation in 1993 to succeed James D. WatsonJames D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
as Director of the National Center for Human Genome Research
Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project is an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional...
, which became National Human Genome Research Institute
National Human Genome Research Institute
The National Human Genome Research Institute is a division of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland.NHGRI began as the National Center for Human Genome Research , which was established in 1989 to carry out the role of the NIH in the International Human Genome Project...
(NHGRI) in 1997. As Director, he oversaw the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium.
In 1994, he founded NHGRI's Division of Intramural Research (DIR), a collection of investigator-directed laboratories that conduct genome research on the NIH campus and has developed into one of the nation's premier research centers in human genetics.
The milestones of NHGRI during the time Collins was director are documented in the article List of events in NHGRI history.
A working draft of the human genome
Human genome
The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs plus the small mitochondrial DNA. 22 of the 23 chromosomes are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining...
was announced in June 2000, and Collins was joined by US President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and biologist Craig Venter
Craig Venter
John Craig Venter is an American biologist and entrepreneur, most famous for his role in being one of the first to sequence the human genome and for his role in creating the first cell with a synthetic genome in 2010. Venter founded Celera Genomics, The Institute for Genomic Research and the J...
in making the announcement. Venter and Collins thus shared the "Biography of the Year" title from A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
. An initial analysis was published in February 2001. HGP scientists continued to work toward finishing the sequence of all three billion base pairs by 2003, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Watson
James D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
and Crick's
Francis Crick
Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
seminal publication of the structure of DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
. In 2005 Collins and Venter were also honored as two of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News & World Report and the Harvard Center for Public Leadership Collins's commitment to free, rapid access to genomic information helped to make all data immediately available to the worldwide scientific community.
One of the main activities at NHGRI during his tenure as director was the composition of the haplotype map of the human genome. The now-completed "hap map" project produced a catalog of genetic variations—called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)—which is now being widely used to discover genetic variations correlated with disease risk.
In addition to his basic genetic research and scientific leadership, Collins is known for his close attention to ethical and legal issues in genetics. He has been a strong advocate for protecting the privacy of genetic information and has served as a national leader in efforts to prohibit gene-based insurance discrimination. Building on his own experiences as a physician volunteer in a rural missionary hospital in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Collins is also very interested in opening avenues for genome research to benefit the health of people living in developing nations.
Collins announced his resignation from NHGRI on May 28, 2008, saying he would continue to lead an intramural research laboratory as a "volunteer"; this will allow several graduate and postdoctoral students to complete projects undertaken under his tenure.
He has received numerous awards and honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
and the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
. He was a Kilby International Awards
Kilby International Awards
The Kilby International Awards was an award created by the High Tech Committee of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, in 1990 to boost interest in the area. It was named after inventor Jack Kilby...
recipient in 1993. In 2007, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
. And, in 2008, he was awarded the National Medal of Science
National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
.
NIH Director
On July 8, 2009 PresidentPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
nominated him to the position of Director of the National Institutes of Health. The US Senate unanimously confirmed him for this post, announced by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
Kathleen Sebelius
Kathleen Sebelius is an American politician currently serving as the 21st Secretary of Health and Human Services. She was the second female Governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009, the Democratic respondent to the 2008 State of the Union address, and chair-emerita of the Democratic Governors...
on August 7, 2009.
According to Science
Science (journal)
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
, Collins "is known as a skilled administrator and excellent communicator" and President Obama's nomination of him to lead the NIH "did not come as a big surprise", and produced many praising analysis from researchers and biomedical groups. It also found critics, mainly due to his outspoken Christian faith. Others think that this fact may prove to be positive to establish bridges with those that see gene-based research as contrary to religious values. His appointment was welcomed by the CEO of the AAAS
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
and by Bernadine Healy
Bernadine Healy
Bernadine Patricia Healy was an American physician, cardiologist, academic and a former head of the National Institutes of Health . She was a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, professor and dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health at the Ohio State University, and served...
.
In the summer of 2009 some preeminent scientists were meeting in Cambridge, England, celebrating the hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of publication of "The Origin of Species
The Origin of Species
Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Its full title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the...
" and word arrived that President Obama had chosen Collins to head the NIH, and, according to Nobel laureate Harold Varmus who was also present, some of them were alarmed. Varmus had been a NIH director under Bill Clinton, and as such, Collins boss. He tried to calm the distress by saying that he "is a terrific scientist, and very well organized and a great spokesperson for the N.I.H., has terrific connections in Congress, and is a delightful person to work with". In November of 2011, Collins was included on The New Republic's list of Washington's most powerful, least famous people.
In October 2009, shortly after his nomination as NIH director, Collins stated in an interview in the New York Times,“I have made it clear that I have no religious agenda for the N.I.H., and I think the vast majority of scientists have been reassured by that and have moved on.”
On October 1, 2009, Collins appeared for the second time on The Colbert Report, discussing his leadership at the NIH and other topics such as personalized medicine
Personalized medicine
Personalized medicine is a medical model emphasizing in general the customization of healthcare, with all decisions and practices being tailored to individual patients in whatever ways possible...
and stem cell research.
Collins was nominated by the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
to be one of the USA Science and Engineering Festival
USA Science and Engineering Festival
USA Science and Engineering Festival was a science festival in Washington, D.C. that founder Larry Book deemed the country’s first national science festival. The inaugural event was held from October 10, 2010 through October 24, 2010 and was planned to be a yearly event. The two week festival...
's Nifty Fifty Speakers to speak about his work and career to middle and high school students in October 2010.
A new center at NIH was slated to open in October 2011, and to be called the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to help develop new drugs. Dr. Collins, frustrated by the declining productivity in the pharmaceutical industry, is leading the effort. For it to work, they have to close one of the 27 institutes already at NIH and give its functions to the new center—something that has never been done before. The idea is to downgrade the National Center for Research Resources, and give some of its functions to NCATS. As of January 2011, over 1000 comments were archived about the proposed NCATS. Nevertheless, in September 2011 there were doubts about the possibility to meet the deadline, because of delays in Congressional approval.
Religious views
Collins has described his parents as "only nominally Christian" and by graduate school he considered himself an atheistAtheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
. However, dealing with dying patients led him to question his religious views, and he investigated various faiths. He familiarized himself with the evidence for and against God in cosmology, and used Mere Christianity
Mere Christianity
Mere Christianity is a theological book by C. S. Lewis, adapted from a series of BBC radio talks made between 1941 and 1944, while Lewis was at Oxford during World War II...
by C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
as a foundation to re-examine his religious view. He eventually came to a conclusion, and finally became an Evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Christian during a hike on a fall afternoon. He has described himself as a "serious Christian".
In his 2006 book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief is a bestselling book by Francis Collins in which he advocates theistic evolution. Francis Collins is an American physician-geneticist, noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and his leadership of the Human Genome Project ....
, Collins considers scientific discoveries an "opportunity to worship". In his book Collins examines and subsequently rejects Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
and intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
. His own belief system is theistic evolution
Theistic evolution
Theistic evolution or evolutionary creation is a concept that asserts that classical religious teachings about God are compatible with the modern scientific understanding about biological evolution...
or evolutionary creation which he prefers to term BioLogos. He appeared in December 2006 on The Colbert Report television show
and in a March 2007 Fresh Air
Fresh Air
Fresh Air is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States. The show is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its longtime host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 450 stations and claimed 4.5 million listeners. The show...
radio interview
to discuss this book.
While not outspoken on the subject, Collins also seems to hold a "pro-life" view of the abortion issue. In a 1998 interview with Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
, he stated that he is "intensely uncomfortable with abortion as a solution to anything" and does not "perceive a precise moment at which life begins other than the moment of conception".
In an interview with National Geographic published in February 2007, John Horgan, an agnostic journalist, criticized Collins' description of agnosticism as "a cop-out". In response, Collins clarified his position on agnosticism so as not to include "earnest agnostics who have considered the evidence and still don't find an answer. I was reacting to the agnosticism I see in the scientific community, which has not been arrived at by a careful examination of the evidence. I went through a phase when I was a casual agnostic, and I am perhaps too quick to assume that others have no more depth than I did".
During a debate with the biologist Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
, Collins stated that God is the explanation of those features of the universe that science finds difficult to explain (such as the values of certain physical constant
Physical constant
A physical constant is a physical quantity that is generally believed to be both universal in nature and constant in time. It can be contrasted with a mathematical constant, which is a fixed numerical value but does not directly involve any physical measurement.There are many physical constants in...
s favoring life), and that God himself does not need an explanation since he is beyond the universe. Dawkins called this "the mother and father of all cop-outs" and "an incredible evasion of the responsibility to explain", to which Collins responded "I do object to the assumption that anything that might be outside of nature is ruled out of the conversation. That's an impoverished view of the kinds of questions we humans can ask, such as 'Why am I here?', 'What happens after we die?' If you refuse to acknowledge their appropriateness, you end up with a zero probability of God after examining the natural world because it doesn't convince you on a proof basis. But if your mind is open about whether God might exist, you can point to aspects of the universe that are consistent with that conclusion".
Collins remains firm in his rejection of intelligent design, and for this reason was not asked to participate in the 2008 documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 documentary film, directed by Nathan Frankowski and hosted by Ben Stein. The film contends that the mainstream science establishment suppresses academics who believe they see evidence of intelligent design in nature and who criticize evidence supporting...
, which tries, among other things, to draw a direct link between evolution and atheism. Walt Ruloff, a producer for the film, claimed that Collins was "toeing the party line" by rejecting intelligent design, which Collins called "just ludicrous".
In 2009, Collins founded the BioLogos Foundation
BioLogos Foundation
The BioLogos Foundation is a Christian advocacy group established by Francis Collins in 2007. BioLogos aims to address the core themes of science and religion, and emphasize a compatibility between science and Christian faith....
to "contribute to the public voice that represents the harmony of science and faith". He served as the foundation's president until he was confirmed as director of the NIH.
Books
- The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for BeliefThe Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for BeliefThe Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief is a bestselling book by Francis Collins in which he advocates theistic evolution. Francis Collins is an American physician-geneticist, noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and his leadership of the Human Genome Project ....
(Free Press, 2006), which spent many weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list - The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine (HarperCollins, published in early 2010)
- Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith (HarperOne, March 2, 2010).
- The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions with Karl GibersonKarl GibersonKarl Willard Giberson is a physicist and scholar specializing in the creation-evolution debate . He has held a teaching post since 1984, written several books, and been a member of various academic and scientific organizations.-Education:Giberson holds two Bachelor's degrees from the Eastern...
IVP Books (February 15, 2011)