Dr. Francis S. Collins, a renowned geneticist who ran the National Institutes of Health for 12 years, announced Saturday that he has retired from the institutes and the federal government, issuing a parting statement that offered a pointed, if somewhat veiled, message to the Trump administration, which has fired hundreds of N.I.H. employees.
“As I depart N.I.H., I want to express my gratitude and love for the men and women with whom I have worked side by side for so many years,” Dr. Collins wrote. “They are individuals of extraordinary intellect and integrity, selfless and hard-working, generous and compassionate. They personify excellence in every way, and they deserve the utmost respect and support of all Americans.”
Dr. Collins, 74, served under three presidents: Barack Obama, Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. He became one of the nation’s most recognizable doctors during the coronavirus pandemic, when he helped steer the development of new tests, therapeutics and vaccines.
But long before that, during the administration of President Bill Clinton, he gained acclaim for leading the Human Genome Project, a federal effort to map the human genome, the set of genetic instructions that defines the human organism. He also became known for his religious views: Dr. Collins is an evangelical Christian who has publicly sought to bridge the divide between science and Christianity, including in a 2006 book, “The Language of God.”
In a text message, Dr. Collins, who spent 32 years at the institutes, said he was “not doing any interviews.” But his carefully crafted statement offered a forceful defense of the N.I.H. and a lament for the days when biomedical research had strong bipartisan support.
Dr. Collins noted that when he was recruited to the institutes, and through many of the years that followed, “investment in medical research was seen as a high priority and a nonpolitical bipartisan effort — saving countless lives, relieving human suffering and contributing substantially to the U.S. economy.”
“N.I.H. is the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world,” he wrote. “It is the main piston of a biomedical discovery engine that is the envy of the globe. Yet it is not a household name. It should be.”
He went on: “When you hear about patients surviving stage 4 cancer because of immunotherapy, that was based on N.I.H. research over many decades. When you hear about sickle-cell disease being cured because of CRISPR gene editing, that was built on many years of research supported by N.I.H.”
Dr. Collins’s retirement, which took effect on Friday, comes on the heels of the departure of other high-ranking N.I.H. officials, including Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, the longtime No. 2 official at the institutes. Dr. Tabak left last month, according to a person familiar with his decision, after being confronted with a reassignment that he viewed as unacceptable.
Dr. Collins was appointed to lead the N.I.H. by Mr. Obama, and he stepped down as director in late 2021, the first year of the Biden administration, to return to his lab. “Millions of people will never know Dr. Collins saved their lives,” Mr. Biden said at the time. “Countless researchers will aspire to follow in his footsteps.”
