How the NIH became the backbone of American medical research and a major driver of innovation and economic growth

By: Fred D. Ledley, Bentley University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: December 15, 2025

Words: 1,250

Last Updated: 3 weeks, 6 days ago

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By Fred D. Ledley, Bentley University

As a young medical student in 1975, I walked into a basement lab at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, to interview for a summer job.

It turned out to be the start of a lifelong affiliation – first as a trainee, then as a grantee running a university laboratory and finally, now, as a researcher of economics and public policy studying the agency’s impact on health …

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