NIH acting Director Ruth L. Kirschstein, has announced the appointment of Donna J. Dean, as Acting Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). The NIBIB, the newest NIH Institute, was created by statute and was signed into law last December. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson approved the establishment of NIBIB in April 2001.

"Dr. Dean has extraordinary scientific and administrative skills, and I appreciate her willingness to lead NIBIB while we conduct a national recruitment effort to find its first permanent Director," Dr. Kirschstein said. HHS Secretary Thompson will appoint the permanent Director.

The mission of the NIBIB is to support the fundamental research that applies the principles of engineering and imaging science to biological processes, disorders and diseases. The Institute will facilitate the transfer of this basic research to medical application.

"As part of the NIBIB mission," Dr. Kirschstein explained, "the new Institute will coordinate the on-going research of the NIH Institutes and Centers and will foster the exchange of information with other Federal agencies."

Dr. Kirschstein added that, "while dedicating an Institute to medical technologies rather than to diseases, organ systems, or populations may seem novel for the NIH, it is truly a reflection of what science is today -- and where science will be taking us tomorrow. "

The creation of an agenda for research and research training will be the primary activity for the NIBIB. These efforts will strengthen on-going NIH activities. In Fiscal Year 1999, predating NIBIB, NIH's Institutes and Centers awarded about $447 million for bioimaging research and about $697 million for bioengineering research. The President's budget request for FY 2002 includes $40.2 million for NIBIB. "I expect that the majority of the activity in other Institutes will continue," Dr. Kirschstein explained, "while NIBIB will support important basic and crosscutting research in the bioengineering and imaging sciences."

Dr. Dean has served in the Office of the NIH Director (OD) as a senior scientific advisor for the past three years, and played a lead role in implementing the legislative establishment of NIBIB.