Francis Collins, perhaps one of the U.S.’ biggest cheerleaders for the promise of medical science, announced Oct. 5 that he will be ending his nearly 13-year tenure as NIH director by the end of the year, but he won’t be hanging up his lab coat. The 71-year-old Collins will continue to lead his research lab at the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health had its hands full with the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program as the COVID-19 pandemic unwound, but the agency’s other work on diagnostics is bearing fruit. NIH said Aug. 31 that its collaboration with an academic research institute has led to development of a test that predicts which patients suffering from neurofibromatosis will develop cancers with metastatic potential.

Eclipse Regenesis Inc. received a National Institutes of Health fast track grant of $1.7 million to advance development of the Eclipse Xl1 system for short bowel syndrome. The spring-like Eclipse device harnesses mechanotransduction to stimulate growth of new, functional intestinal tissue. Short bowel syndrome is a devastating and rare condition that leads sufferers with too little small intestine to extract sufficient nutrients to sustain life. The grant for Menlo Park, Calif.-based Eclipse came through NIH’s small business innovation program.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it has developed a novel method of sample preparation for tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which could trim time and costs for diagnostic testing for COVID-19. This approach bypasses the RNA extraction step, thus eliminating the need for some supplies, and NIH said this technique is available for co-development or licensing with the private sector, giving the smart testing company access to a patent-protected technology with an existing demand already built in.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has waded into the controversial question of the respective roles of rapid antigen and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a question that roiled relations between the FDA and public health experts. According to NIH, three rapid antigen tests administered at three-day intervals offer the same level of sensitivity as PCR, a finding that will likely make itself felt in future communicable disease outbreaks.

Neuropace Inc. nabbed $9 million in the form of a five-year NIH grant as part of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The grant will support the study of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS) system in patients with Lennox-Gastuat syndrome (LGS), a debilitating form of epilepsy.

The Biden administration released its full budget proposal for fiscal year 2022, increasing the FDA’s budget authority to nearly $3.6 billion, up 10% over 2021. The Alliance for a Stronger FDA said that though analysis is needed to parse out the details, the proposal will be supported.

The May 25 appearance of Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, before a congressional committee revolved in large part around the Biden administration’s so-called ARPA-H proposal, but the administration’s proposal to waive intellectual property rights for vaccines was also on tap.