Elias Zerhouni

While a radiologist at Johns Hopkins University, Elias Zerhouni, who once helped treat the late President Ronald Reagan for colon cancer (Nature 419, 329; 2002), was naturally well positioned to think about both multidisciplinary and applied research. Now, as director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Algerian–born scientist is helping to transform the $21 billion agency from a basic research entity into a more multi-faceted organization, with a greater emphasis on interdisciplinary and translational research.