NIH director retracts congratulatory email

Science : The director of the US National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, was forced to retract an email he sent his staff over the weekend, writes Jocelyn Kaiser. In the email he announced that President Obama had signed a 2012 spending bill, which, among other things, would establish a new center Collins has been promoting—the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS). In reality, what the president signed was a continuing resolution; Obama is not expected to sign the spending bill until later this week. Many felt Collins’s premature email was indicative of the entire project, which Collins is said to have rushed through without adequate discussion. The creation of NCATS will mean the dismantling of another NIH center, the National Center for Research Resources, which Collins admits in his email has had a “rich history.” For the many critics of the reorganization, says Kaiser, the memo “rubbed salt in their wounds.”