National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

The NIGMS Mission is to support basic research that increases our understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. NIGMS also supports research in specific clinical areas that affect multiple organ systems: anesthesiology and peri-operative pain; clinical pharmacology common to multiple drugs and treatments; and injury, critical illness, sepsis, and wound healing. NIGMS-funded scientists investigate how living systems work at a range of levels—from molecules and cells to tissues and organs—in research organisms, humans, and populations. Additionally, to ensure the vitality and continued productivity of the research enterprise, NIGMS provides leadership in supporting the training of future scientists and developing research capacity throughout the country.

NIGMS supports fundamental research to uncover the basic principles, mechanisms, and processes that underlie living organisms, without a focus on specific diseases, organs, life stages, or populations. NIGMS also supports the development of fundamental methods and new technologies to achieve its mission. Supported research may utilize specific cells or organ systems if they serve as models for understanding general principles. Research with the overall goal to gain knowledge about a specific organ or organ system or the pathophysiology, treatment, or cure of a specific disease or condition will, in most cases, be more appropriate for another institute or center. 

Scientific Topics

• Multi-scale computational modeling, bioinformatics, and biostatistics
• Technology development for biomedical research
• Biophysics of proteins, nucleic acids, membranes and their complexes
• Anesthesia, pain, drug metabolism, inflammatory responses, critical care, organ physiology, drug delivery, sepsis, and wound healing
• Cellular and molecular processes
• Chemical synthesis, catalysis, chemical probes, natural products, and glycosciences
• Cells and cellular component structure and function
• Mechanisms of inheritance
• Gene expression and development
• Clinical Trials (with limitations and further considerations) in:
  • anesthesiology
  • clinical pharmacology
  • injury and critical illness
  • sepsis
  • wound healing

Other Topics

• Research, infrastructure improvements, and research workforce development in states and institutions across the U.S. that do not receive high levels of NIH funding
• Training and biomedical research workforce development, including:
  • dual-degree clinician scientist research training
  • training opportunities at federally recognized Tribal entities
  • fellowship programs for clinician scientists
  • individual predoctoral and postdoctoral and institutional basic biomedical research training programs
• Research, research training, and workforce development meetings and conferences 

Highlighted Topics