Dozens of neuroscience organizations are urging Congress to investigate and oversee the imminent leadership change at the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
In a letter dated 22 January, the organizations’ leaders demand a closer look into why the Department of Health and Human Services decided last month not to reappoint Walter Koroshetz as the institute’s director, despite his positive reviews by internal and external panels. The letter also asks Congress to ensure that future leadership decisions are made transparently and with scientific expertise in mind.
Koroshetz has served as NINDS director since 2015 and co-directs the BRAIN Initiative. Tomorrow is set to be his last day.
The abrupt dismissal came at a time of turmoil for the National Institutes of Health, says Annapurna Poduri, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, who worked as deputy director of the NINDS under Koroshetz before leaving the NIH last July. With Koroshetz out tomorrow, 14 of the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers will lack permanent directors.
“These are positions that need to be filled to provide leadership moving forward. So we hope they fill them as soon as possible with an appropriate process,” says Jack Parent, professor of neurology at the University of Michigan and president of the American Epilepsy Society, one of the organizations that signed the letter. Other signatories include the American Academy of Neurology, which spearheaded the letter, and the Society for Neuroscience.
The director of the NINDS, in particular, has an important public-facing role, which includes attending congressional hearings and serving “as a conduit of information between the NIH and Congress and then, by extension, the American people,” Poduri says. The sudden lack of a permanent director is disruptive to the community, she says.
The letter also expresses concern over why the lack of reappointment occurred in the first place. “This action was undertaken despite the positive recommendation to renew Dr. Koroshetz’s term by NIH’s review panel, and the endorsement to do so by the NIH Director, Dr. Jayanta ‘Jay’ Bhattacharya,” the letter states. The signatories urge Congress to work with the Department of Health and Human Services to understand what happened. Neither Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nor Bhattacharya responded to The Transmitter’s requests for comment. Koroshetz declined to comment.
The letter is addressed to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; the House Committee on Appropriations; the Senate Committee on Appropriations; and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce: Bill Cassidy, Bernie Sanders, Susan Collins, Patty Murray, Tom Cole, Rosa DeLauro, Brett Guthrie and Frank Pallone.
Amy Bany Adams is set to serve as acting director of the NINDS after Koroshetz departs. Poduri notes that Adams is experienced and will serve as a “wonderful partner between the NINDS and the scientific community.” But she says she presumes that another permanent director will be brought on. “It is really disconcerting to see that standard operating procedures have not been followed. It makes us anxious about what is going to happen and how the next leader will be recruited.”
