After serving as the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) for more than 15 years, Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D, has left his role.
The move was reported by Stat and is based on information from two NHGRI employees plus internal communications viewed by Stat.
Green, the leader of one of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH's) 27 institutes, leaves amid mass federal layoffs and restructuring under President Donald Trump’s administration. His five-year term as NHGRI head was up for renewal, according to Stat. The NIH had sent paperwork to the Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) to renew Green’s term, according to Stat, though the papers were obviously not cleared.
The exact details of Green's departure remain unclear. Journalist Sam Stein, citing a source in a post on X, said he was fired.
The HHS has not responded to Fierce Biotech's request for comment.
The leader has been with the NIH since 1996, stepping on as NHGRI director in late 2009, according to his profile on LinkedIn.
As director of the NHGRI, Green guided work aimed at improving our understanding of human genetics and using those findings to help develop treatments for genetic diseases.
Before becoming head of the institute, discoveries from Green’s lab contributed to the Human Genome Project. His research team also uncovered the genetic causes driving multiple diseases, such as Pendred syndrome, a rare disorder that can lead to hearing loss.
While Green is the first director of an NIH institute to leave during Trump’s second term, several other NIH leaders have parted ways with the government in recent weeks.
At the end of February, Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., left the NIH after a 32-year career with the agency. Collins worked closely with Green, serving as the director of the NHGRI from 1993 to 2008—right before Green took over. Collins went on to serve as NIH director until 2021 and even briefly served as President Joe Biden’s science advisor in 2022.
In February, the NIH’s deputy director for extramural research, Michael Lauer, M.D., left the agency after nearly a decade, while the NIH’s principal deputy director Larry Tabak, Ph.D., retired around that same time.