Updated March 21.
After serving as the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) for more than 15 years, Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D., has left his role.
"Eric Green, M.D. Ph.D., is no longer serving as director of NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute," an NIH spokesperson told Fierce Biotech in a Feb. 21 email. In a previous Feb. 18 email, the agency said it did not comment on personnel issues.
Green's five-year term as NHGRI head was up for renewal, according to Stat. The NIH had sent paperwork to the Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) to renew Green’s term, according to Stat.
"Dr. Green’s tenure ended on March 17, 2025, and his appointment was not renewed," a NIH spokesperson confirmed with Fierce on Feb. 21, citing the 21st Century Cures Act signed into law in 2016.
According to the act, directors of the national research institutes—excluding the National Cancer Institute—are appointed to five-year terms with the chance to be reappointed at the end of the term.
"At the end of the term, the HHS Secretary, acting through the NIH Director, may reappoint an NIH Institute Director or appoint another individual," the NIH spokesperson said. "Vence L. Bonham, Jr., NHGRI acting deputy director, will ensure continuity of operations until a new director is appointed."
Bonham is a healthcare lawyer who was appointed to the deputy director role in 2021. Before that, he served as a senior advisor to the NHGRI director on genomics and health disparities and led the health disparities unit in NHGRI’s social and behavioral research branch. One of his first responsibilities as acting deputy director was to create an office of workforce diversity and health equity within the NHGRI director's office, according to his appointment announcement.
Before joining the NIH, Bonham was a professor at Michigan State University in the colleges of medicine and law.
For now, Bonham replaces Green as the leader of one of the NIH's 27 institutes. Green had served for the NIH since 1996, stepping on as NHGRI director in late 2009, according to his profile on LinkedIn.
As director of the NHGRI, Green guided work aimed at improving our understanding of human genetics and using those findings to help develop treatments for genetic diseases.
Before becoming head of the institute, discoveries from Green’s lab contributed to the Human Genome Project. His research team also uncovered the genetic causes driving multiple diseases, such as Pendred syndrome, a rare disorder that can lead to hearing loss.
His departure comes amid mass federal layoffs and restructuring under President Donald Trump’s administration. While Green is the first director of an NIH institute to leave during Trump’s second term, several other NIH leaders have parted ways with the government in recent weeks.
At the end of February, Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., left the NIH after a 32-year career with the agency. Collins worked closely with Green, serving as the director of the NHGRI from 1993 to 2008—right before Green took over. Collins went on to serve as NIH director until 2021 and even briefly served as President Joe Biden’s science advisor in 2022.
In February, the NIH’s deputy director for extramural research, Michael Lauer, M.D., left the agency after nearly a decade, while the NIH’s principal deputy director Larry Tabak, Ph.D., retired around that same time.