The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which oversees one of the world's foremost biomedical research centers, is a federal agency administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH's beginnings can be traced to 1887 and the establishment of a one-room Laboratory of Hygiene. NIH is one of eight Public Health Service agencies that fall under control of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There are 24 separate institutes, centers, and divisions within NIH. By 1999, the NIH budget had grown to more than $15.6 billion (from about $300 in 1887).

NIH supports research whose goal is to provide better health for everyone. NIH seeks to acquire new knowledge to "help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability, from the rarest genetic disorder to the common cold."

Besides conducting research in its own laboratories, NIH supports the research of scientists in...