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President Obama Announces Recovery Act Grants for Medical Research

President Barack Obama talks with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In the background: Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services Secretary (left) and Francis Collins, NIH Director (center). Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 30, 2009—During a visit today to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), President Barack Obama announced $5 billion in new medical research grants as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"The work you do is not easy," Obama remarked. "It takes a great deal of patience and persistence. But it holds incredible promise for the health of our people and the future of our nation and our world."

The president acknowledged the role of the nation's "universities and research institutions" in advancing biomedical knowledge and offering hope for new treatments and cures, noting that they "are demonstrating our capacity not just as a nation but as human beings to harness our creativity and our ingenuity to save lives, to spare suffering, to build a better world for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren."

AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., joined NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., and other major stakeholders at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., for the announcement.

According to White House estimates, the approximately 12,000 new grants, which comprise the largest infusion of money to date into biomedical research, will support the full continuum of medical research and create tens of thousands of jobs over the next two years.

Watch a video: President Obama Visit to NIH - Recovery To Discovery

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The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association representing all 131 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 68 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and nearly 90 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 128,000 faculty members, 75,000 medical students, and 110,000 resident physicians. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.