338 Physicians, Scientists, and Advocates Call on the NIH to Prioritize Human-Centered Research

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In a letter sent to National Institutes of Health Director Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, on Nov. 18, 338 physicians, scientists, and advocates joined the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in calling on the NIH to prioritize human-centered research in the upcoming NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026-2030. An agency-wide focus on the broader use of human-centered approaches will help to better translate medical research to patient benefits and replace the use of animals.

The NIH is mandated by Congress to develop and regularly update a strategic plan to provide direction to biomedical research, facilitate agency-wide collaboration, leverage scientific opportunity, and advance biomedicine.

The signatories are urging Dr. Bertagnolli to ensure that the NIH prioritizes the development and use of human-specific research approaches across the agency; ensures that the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan Working Group includes experts in human-specific research approaches; implements comprehensive stakeholder engagement in the development of the strategic plan; bolsters the representation of human-specific expertise in scientific review groups; ensures that human-specific research approaches are not excluded from funding opportunities; and tracks and reports the use of animal- and human-based models in NIH-funded projects.

The letter, which is also addressed to Tara A. Schwetz, PhD, director of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives at NIH, says that taking these measures in the development and implementation of the next strategic plan “will not only demonstrate a strong commitment to human health and disease research but also set important goals and map plans to achieve them.”

The signatories of the letter also commended the NIH’s progress in advancing human-centered research. Earlier this year, Dr. Bertagnolli announced that the NIH had accepted an advisory group’s recommendations for catalyzing the development and use of novel alternative methods—new nonanimal methods that more accurately model human biology. These innovative approaches, like tissue chips and computational models, use human cells, tissue, and data to replicate complex patient physiology, improving the understanding of human biology and disease and promoting the development of safer and more effective new drugs.

“As stated in the final report of the Advisory Committee to the Director Novel Alternative Methods working group, human-specific methods ‘offer tremendous promise for helping us better understand fundamental biology to advance human health,’ while simultaneously providing potential to reduce or replace the use of animals and to ‘enable research to be done more quickly, by researchers, and at a more affordable cost,’” says the letter.

“The NIH is making great strides in moving away from animal experiments toward human-centered methods that better model human biology and disease,” says Catharine E. Krebs, PhD, medical research program manager with the Physicians Committee. “The NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026-2030 is an important opportunity for the NIH to formalize its commitment to these effective approaches that will continue to advance human health.”