What is the National Institutes of Health?

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical research. The Institutes are responsible for 28% - about $28 billion - of the total biomedical research funding spent annually in the U.S, with most of the rest coming from industry. The NIH is divided into two parts: the "Extramural" parts of NIH are responsible for the funding of biomedical research outside of NIH, while the "Intramural" parts of NIH conduct research. Intramural research is primarily conducted at the main campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and the surrounding towns. The National Institute of Aging and the National Institute on Drug Abuse are located in Baltimore, Maryland and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is in Research Triangle, North Carolina The NIAID maintains Rocky Mountain Labs in Hamilton, Montana with an emphasis on virology.