Vence Bonham Jr., the highest ranking official at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), has been put on administrative leave, according to Stat.
The acting deputy director of the institute said he was “unexpectedly” placed on leave, according to a March 31 email to staff cited by Stat.
Bonham became the NHGRI’s leader two weeks ago, when longtime director Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D., was forced to exit after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) declined to renew his contract.
Next in line was Bonham, a healthcare lawyer who was appointed to serve as deputy director in 2021.
It’s not clear who is currently running the research outfit. The NHGRI has not responded to Fierce Biotech’s request for comment as of publication.
When Bonham stepped on as acting deputy director in 2021, one of his first responsibilities was to create an office of workforce diversity and health equity within the NHGRI director's office, according to his appointment announcement.
Before that, he was a senior advisor to the NHGRI director on genomics and health disparities and led the health disparities unit in the institute’s social and behavioral research branch.
In his email, Bonham wrote that he had dedicated his research life to reducing disparities for patients with sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder that disproportionately impacts people of color, with more than 90% of U.S. cases reported in Black individuals. He also said he was committed to increasing access to genomics, alleviating health disparities and improving health for everyone, according to Stat.
In mid-March, Bonham replaced Green—who had been with the NIH since 1996—as the leader of one of the NIH's 27 institutes.
While Green was the first director of an NIH institute to leave during Trump’s second term, several other NIH leaders have parted ways with the government, including Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D.; Michael Lauer, M.D.; and Larry Tabak, Ph.D.; among many others.
Most recently, Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., the director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, filed his resignation, with several publications reporting that Marks was given the choice to either step aside or be pushed aside.
The past two months have been marked by mass federal layoffs and restructuring under the current administration.
President Donald Trump, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk have vowed to dramatically reduce the workforce at federal health agencies in an effort to fundamentally reshape the government.
A Feb. 11 executive order provided further details on how the DOGE would alter the federal workforce, requiring every agency to hire “no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.”
Explicitly mentioned in the executive order are offices that include diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which are to be prioritized for firings.
Last week, RFK Jr. said the government would cut 3,500 full-time FDA employees and 1,200 NIH workers as part of an overarching move designed to eliminate 10,000 HHS jobs. The new restructuring, paired with early retirements and the administration's previous downsizing efforts, will bring the entire health department’s current size of 82,000 full-time staffers down to 62,000.
The layoffs are supposed to save the agency $1.8 billion annually, the HHS said.