The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) primarily supports basic biomedical research that lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. The Institute's training programs help provide the most critical element of good research: well-prepared scientists.

NIGMS is one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the principal biomedical research agency of the Federal Government. NIH is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Each year, NIGMS-supported scientists make major advances in understanding fundamental life processes. In the course of answering basic research questions, these investigators also increase our knowledge about the mechanisms and pathways involved in certain diseases. Other grantees develop important new tools and techniques, many of which have medical applications. In recognition of the significance of their work, a number of NIGMS grantees have received the Nobel Prize and other high scientific honors.

NIGMS is organized into divisions and a center that support research and research training in basic biomedical science fields. One division has the specific mission of increasing the number of underrepresented minority biomedical and behavioral scientists.

The key areas in which these units fund research are listed below their names:

Division of Cell Biology and Biophysics

• analytical and separation techniques
• biomedical instrumentation
• cell organization, motility, and division
• lipid biochemistry
• membrane structure and function
• molecular biophysics
• spectroscopic techniques
• structural biology
• structural genomics

Division of Genetics and Developmental Biology

• cell growth and differentiation
• chromosome organization and mechanics
• control of gene expression
• control of the cell cycle
• developmental genetics
• extrachromosomal inheritance
• mechanisms of mutagenesis
• neurogenetics and the genetics of behavior
• population genetics, evolution, and the genetics of complex traits
• protein synthesis
• replication, recombination, and repair of genes
• RNA processing and transcription

Division of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biological Chemistry

• anesthesiology
• biochemistry
• bioenergetics
• bio-organic and bio-inorganic chemistry
• biotechnology
• glycoconjugates and glycobiology
• medicinal chemistry
• molecular immunobiology
• pharmacogenetics
• pharmacology and clinical pharmacology
• physiology
• synthetic chemistry
• trauma and burn injury
• wound healing

Division of Minority Opportunities in Research

• Minority Access to Research Careers Branch – supports research training at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels.
• Minority Biomedical Research Support Branch – funds faculty-initiated research projects and student development grants at educational institutions with significant enrollments of underrepresented minority students. These grants help strengthen the institutions' biomedical research capabilities and develop the research competitiveness of the participating faculty.
• Special Initiatives – support innovative programs to enhance the research and research training capabilities of institutions with substantial minority enrollments as well as the career development of minority scientists.  

Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

• biomedical software development
• cell and molecular modeling and simulation
• computational genomics
• database design and enhancement
• high-throughput data analysis
• systems biology

NIGMS was established in 1962. In fiscal year 2005, the Institute's budget is $1.9 billion. The vast majority of this money goes to fund grants to scientists at universities, medical schools, hospitals, and research institutions throughout the country. At any given time, NIGMS supports approximately 4,500 research grants--about 10 percent of the grants funded by NIH as a whole. NIGMS also supports approximately 26 percent of the trainees who receive assistance from NIH.

The Institute places great emphasis on the support of individual, investigator-initiated research grants. It funds a limited number of research center grants in selected fields, including structural genomics, trauma and burn research, and the pharmacological sciences. In addition, NIGMS funds several important resources for basic scientists.

In recent years, NIGMS has launched initiatives in such cutting-edge areas as structural genomics (the Protein Structure Initiative), pharmacogenetics, collaborative research initiatives (which includes "glue grants"), and systems biology. NIGMS is also participating in the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, a series of far-reaching initiatives that seek to transform the nation’s biomedical research capabilities and speed the movement of research discoveries from the bench to the bedside.

NIGMS research training programs recognize the interdisciplinary nature of biomedical research today and stress approaches to biological problems that cut across disciplinary and departmental lines. Such experience prepares trainees to pursue creative research careers in a wide variety of areas.

Certain NIGMS training programs address areas in which there is a particularly serious need for well-prepared scientists. One of these, the Medical Scientist Training Program, provides investigators who can bridge the gap between basic and clinical research by supporting research training leading to the combined M.D.-Ph.D. degree. Other programs train scientists to conduct research in the rapidly growing field of biotechnology and at the interface between the fields of chemistry and biology.

NIGMS also has a Pharmacology Research Associate Program, in which postdoctoral scientists receive training in pharmacology in NIH or Food and Drug Administration laboratories and clinics.

Among the research advances made with NIGMS support are studies that have:

• Contributed to a better understanding of the cell, which is the fundamental unit of life, and of many of the genes that control cellular processes. Among the areas in which knowledge has increased rapidly are details of cell structure, the cell cycle of growth and division, protein transport across cell membranes, and communication within and between cells.

• Improved understanding of the relationship between the structure and function of biological molecules, such as proteins and the genetic material DNA and RNA. Continued advances in this field, known as structural biology, have enabled researchers to determine the detailed three-dimensional structure of increasingly large cellular components, such as ribosomes--the cellular factories that manufacture all of the proteins required for life. Many antibiotic drugs target ribosomes in bacteria, so this work may help scientists develop new antibiotics or improve existing ones.

• Successfully applied knowledge in chemistry to yield new ways to produce a wide variety of medicines. Advances in chemistry have also spawned useful tools to probe biological goings-on inside and between cells.

• Played an important role in driving burn injury survival statistics upward. Among the advances that have contributed directly to this public health benefit are discoveries related to proper wound care, adequate nutrition, and infection control. Basic research has also led to the development of widely used, commercially available skin-replacement products for the treatment of injury caused by severe burns.