Director's Bio
Janine Austin Clayton, M.D.
NIH Associate Director for Research on Women's Health
Director, NIH Office of Research on Women's Health
Janine Austin Clayton, M.D., was appointed Associate Director for Research on Women's Health and Director of the Office of Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2012. She is leading NIH's policy change initiative that requires scientists to include female animals and cells in preclinical research design.
Dr. Clayton was previously the Deputy Clinical Director of the National Eye Institute (NEI). A board-certified ophthalmologist, Dr. Clayton's research interests include autoimmune ocular diseases and the role of sex and gender in health and disease. Dr. Clayton has a particular interest in ocular surface disease and discovered a novel form of disease associated with premature ovarian insufficiency that affects young women. She is the author of more than 80 scientific publications, journal articles, and book chapters.
Dr. Clayton is a native Washingtonian, and received her undergraduate degree with honors from the Johns Hopkins University and her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine. She completed a residency in ophthalmology at the Medical College of Virginia and fellowship training in cornea and external disease at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital and in uveitis and ocular immunology at the NEI.
Dr. Clayton has been an attending physician and clinical investigator in cornea and uveitis at the NEI since 1996, conducting research on inflammatory diseases of the anterior segment and providing medical and surgical uveitis fellowship training. Her clinical research has ranged from randomized controlled trials of novel therapies for immune mediated ocular diseases to studies on the development of digital imaging techniques for the anterior segment.
Dr. Clayton has received several awards from NIH and has been recognized as a leader by her peers. She received the Senior Achievement Award from the Board of Trustees of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2008 and was selected as a 2010 Silver Fellow by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
Follow Dr. Clayton online at www.nih.gov/women and @JanineClaytonMD .