An agency of the u.s. Department of health and human services that is a world-renowned institution supporting biomedical and behavioral research; the principal biomedical research agency of the federal government. Its components are the national cancer institute; the national eye institute; the national heart, lung, and blood institute; the national human genome research institute; the national institute on aging; the national institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism (NIAAA); the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases; the national institute of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases; the national institute of biomedical imaging and bioengineering; the national institute of child health and human development; the national institute on deafness and other communication disorders; the national institute of dental and craniofacial research; the national institute of diabetes and digestive and kidney diseases; the national institute on drug abuse (NIDA); the national institute of environmental health sciences; the national institute of general medical sciences; the national institute of mental health (NIMH); the national institute of neurological disorders and stroke; the national institute of nursing research; the national library of medicine; the center for information technology; the center for scientific review; the john e. Fogarty international center; the national center for complementary and alternative medicine; the national center on minority health and health disparities; the national center for research resources; and the warren grant magnuson clinical center.
The major U.S. Government sponsor of biotechnology research. It is composed of a group of government institutes that each focus on specific medical areas.
One of the eight health agencies of the Public Health Service, which is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Founded in 1887, the NIH is the focal point for medical research in the United States. The NIH’s goal is to acquire new knowledge to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability.