The pulse of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) could weaken without a healthy injection of money to fund future innovations and the scientists who form the core of biomedical research.
"This is a perilous moment" for both the NIH and the future of innovative research, NIH Director Francis Collins told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Wednesday as he pushed for more funding for the agency. NIH has lost 22 percent of its purchasing power over the past decade, and the number of grants it awards is continuing to drop.
The agency was particularly hard hit this year when sequestration compounded the difficulties of an already flat budget. Consequently, the NIH is operating on a budget that's $1.7 billion less than what it had
