Josephine P. Briggs, M.D., Named Director of NCCAM
Josephine P. Briggs, M.D.
© Paul Fetters. Courtesy of HHMI.
"I welcome the opportunity to develop further the NIH investment in this exciting field of biomedical investigation."
— Dr. Josephine Briggs
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., has named Josephine P. Briggs, M.D., as Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).
An accomplished researcher and physician, Dr. Briggs brings a focus on translational research* to the study of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This approach should help build a fuller understanding of the usefulness and safety of CAM practices, which nearly two-thirds of Americans use.
NCCAM has a fiscal year 2008 budget of $121.6 million, supports CAM research at more than 260 institutions throughout the country, funds research training and career development, and provides science-based information to the public and health professionals.
"We are pleased to have Dr. Briggs return to NIH to lead NCCAM," said Dr. Zerhouni. "She has been a leader in trans-NIH activities, and her in-depth understanding of NIH and translational research will bring new opportunities to the study of CAM."
"I am honored to be selected to lead NCCAM, and I welcome the opportunity to develop further the NIH investment in this exciting field of biomedical investigation," Dr. Briggs said. "Alternative approaches to health and wellness are of enormous public interest, and we need a strong portfolio of science in this area. NIH has already taken significant steps to build research programs to explore the potential of CAM. I look forward to working with scientists and the CAM community as well as my colleagues across NIH to strengthen our understanding of the potential of CAM and to examine the opportunities for integration of proven CAM approaches into our nation's health care delivery."
Dr. Briggs received her A.B. cum laude in biology from Harvard-Radcliffe College and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency training in internal medicine and nephrology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, followed by a research fellowship in physiology at Yale School of Medicine.
She was a professor of internal medicine and physiology at the University of Michigan from 1993 to 1997. From 1997 to 2006 she was director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. From 2006 until her NCCAM appointment, she was senior scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Briggs has published more than 125 research articles and is on the editorial boards of numerous journals. She is an elected member of the American Association of Physicians and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is also a recipient of the Volhard Prize of the German Nephrological Society. Her research interests include the renin-angiotensin system (a hormone system that helps regulate blood pressure and the amount of fluid in the blood), diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease caused by diabetes), and the effect of antioxidants in kidney disease.
* Translational research involves translating new findings obtained from basic research laboratories into testable hypotheses that can be evaluated in research studies in people. —Editor
