National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins talks about the future of the NIH in light of the election.

美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）主管弗朗西斯·科林斯（Francis Collins）谈论了大选对NIH未来的影响。

撰文\播音：史蒂夫·米尔斯基（Steve Mirsky）

翻译：杨枭

审校：丁可含

“As somebody who is part of the executive branch and serving in this role which I can consider to be a great privilege, as director of NIH, I am confident that the convictions that are held by many Americans and by most members of the Congress, that biomedical research is one of most important investments that our government makes, will carry the day and that I think that there’s no reason for people to commence hand-wringing by this unexpected turn of events.”

“我一直认为，作为美国国立卫生研究院主管服务于行政部门，是我极大的荣誉，我相信许多美国人和大多数国会成员都坚信，生物医学研究是我们政府做出的重要投资，我认为没有理由在将来某一天让人们用（总统换届）这个意想不到的转折事件来改变。”

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, at the offices of Scientific American and the Nature journals on November 14th. He was asked about the future of the NIH after the election and the inauguration of the new president on January 20th.

美国国立卫生研究院主管弗朗西斯·科林斯在11月14日科学美国人和《自然》杂志的办公室中如是说。他被问到大选后以及1月20日新总统就职典礼后NIH的未来。

“I do think the case for what medical research is doing right now in terms of its advances in human health, its way of stimulating the economy—which is quite substantial—and it’s achieving American leadership, which has made a big difference over the decades, is a sufficiently compelling case that people looking at the evidence all pretty much come to the conclusion that this is an area that we, if anything, ought to enhance and certainly not retrench.

“我确实认为，在过去几十年中，医疗研究在人类健康、和经济发展以及美国领导地位的实现方面都起到重要作用。这些足以证明医学领域是无论如何应该增强而非削减的。

“So I think the facts and the circumstances cause me to be quite confident that the area that I’ve had the privilege of representing will continue to do well, regardless of exactly what happens in the course of political events. You can watch and see if I turn out to be wrong, but that’s my position and I’m sticking to it.”

“因此，我认为事实和现状使我确信，无论政治上发生何种事件，我有代表医学领域的特权保证将继续做好我们分内的工作。你可以看看我是不是错了，但这是我的立场，我会坚持下去。”

As for his own future:

至于他自己的未来：

“I have no idea. I am appointed by the president. I, like every other presidential appointee and Senate-confirmed person am required to submit a letter of resignation by December 7th, I will do that. The letter will say I am resigning effective January 20th. And until that moment it may not be that clear what happens next, my mind is pretty open to that. I’m actually kind of enjoying the ambiguity of not knowing what comes next. I will continue to oversee my research lab at NIH come what may. I run a lab of about 10 people…I have some incredibly gifted postdocs right now who are making major advances in diabetes and aging research. And I will continue to be their mentor and their research advisor as I have done for the past now 23 years since I’ve been at NIH. So at least that part of what happens after January 20th is clear. The rest—it’s really not up to me.”

“我不知道。我由总统任命，和其他所有总统候选人以及参议院确认的人一样，必须在12月7日之前提交辞职信，我会这样做的。这封信会说我将于1月20日辞职。直到那时我也不是很确定下一步会发生什么，但我对此很开明。我真的很享受不知道接下来会怎样的不确定性。我将继续监督我在NIH的研究实验室能迎来什么。我监管一个约10人的实验室……那里有一些不可思议的天才博士后，在糖尿病和老龄化研究即将取得重大进展。我将继续是他们的导师和他们的研究顾问，因为我已经在NIH做了23年。所以至少在1月20日之后发生的那部分是清楚的。其余的——真的不取决于我。”