https://apnews.com/ad60840f4479d33f32e6edfada2cda50

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health for 12 years, said Tuesday he is stepping down, capping a career in which he directed crucial research into the human genome and the fight against serious diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes and COVID-19.

Collins said he was "grateful and proud of the NIH staff and the scientific community, whose extraordinary commitment to lifesaving research delivers hope to the American people and the world every day.” He said the decision to step down at year's end was “a difficult one.”