Ncats gains first chief and positions for industry partnerships


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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe As the US National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) approaches its first birthday, it can celebrate the appointment of its


first director, Christopher Austin, and begin to build up the industry partnerships it needs to succeed. NCATS, the newest branch of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), was signed


into law by President Barack Obama in December 2011 and is charged with creating faster paths to bring drug research into actual medical use. Austin is a neurologist who has been with NCATS


since its inception, heading the division of preclinical innovation. His career includes a seven-year stint at pharmaceutical giant Merck, though he has spent the past decade with the NIH.


Austin says that NCATS will “lift all boats” of drug research, given the center's disease agnostic platform. Initial critics of NCATS worried the government was creating its own branch


of drug development, but Austin “realizes that the NIH does not discover drugs,” says Steven Paul, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York who served on the NCATS


search committee for the director position. Paul described Austin as an optimistic leader, which was apparent in Austin's comment to _Nature Medicine_ that drug companies and


researchers are playing an “obligatorily team sport” and must learn to better collaborate. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access


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subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support Authors * Susan Matthews View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS


Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Matthews, S. NCATS gains first chief and positions for industry partnerships. _Nat Med_ 18, 1447 (2012).


https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1012-1447b Download citation * Published: 05 October 2012 * Issue Date: October 2012 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1012-1447b SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share


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