Fischbach to step down at NINDS

Gerald Fischbach has resigned as director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health, to take a vice president position at Columbia University in New York. Fischbach, who joined NINDS in June 1998, was at the top of HHS Secretary Donna Shalala's list of potential replacements for director of NIH when Harold Varmus retired last year. But because of the limited time in his term, President Clinton decided not to submit a nomination to the Senate; Deputy Director Ruth Kirschstein was appointed acting director last January.

Vice President Al Gore has not indicated whom he would nominate as to run the NIH, but Fischbach's outspoken support for embryonic stem cell research has kept him off George W. Bush's list of potential directors, according to Republican officials and Capitol Hill staff. ...