A new multi-billion dollar federal agency has been created to support a “moonshot for next generation health” in science, logistics, diversity and equality. The agency now has its first leader, as on September 12, 2022, President Joe Biden announced Lenny Wegzin as Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-H).

Since the announcement of our intention to create ARPA-H two years ago, the new institution has generated interest and questions in both academia and industry.

For decades, I have served as director of an innovation-driven health laboratory and have worked with many government agencies that fund science. I and many of my colleagues believe that ARPA-H will be an institution that can rapidly translate scientific discoveries into real-world advances in detecting, preventing, and treating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. I hope that But questions still remain about how it works and how it differs from other government-funded institutions such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

What is ARPA-H?

ARPA-H is the newest organization to be established within the National Institutes of Health. ARPA-H was expressly established as an independent agency within NIH. In theory, you can benefit from the NIH’s vast scientific and administrative expertise and resources, and stay agile and forward-thinking.

ARPA-H was inspired and modeled by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to rapidly develop cutting-edge technology. DARPA may be small compared to other federal research and development agencies, but it has a long history of great success. He played a key role in creating many technologies, from the Internet to GPS, and in 2013 funded Moderna to develop mRNA vaccine technology.

ARPA-H is not the only DARPA spinoff. In 2006, the federal government created the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity and in 2009 the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy was launched to address the difficult challenges of the intelligence community. Though smaller in budget than the Department of Energy, ARPA-E has been very effective in funding ambitious research to combat climate change. By funding ambitious medium- to long-term projects, IARPA, ARPA-E, and now ARPA-H, will provide both slow government-funded basic research and short-term, profit-driven private sector venture capital. It is intended to work between

How do agencies work?

Biden hopes that ARPA-H will replicate DARPA’s success, but in the healthcare realm, it will be a “high-risk, high-return organism to equitably accelerate the application and implementation of health breakthroughs.” By providing ‘leadership in medical and health research.

Established federal agencies such as the NIH and the National Science Foundation prefer to fund more basic research and low-risk projects compared to DARPA’s high-risk, high-reward, applied science approach. If ARPA-H wants to achieve the success of its predecessors, it will have to operate differently than the NIH and NSF.

DARPA employs about 100 program managers, who are “borrowed” from academia and industry for three to five years. These managers travel across the country to meet with scientists and experts in various fields to generate ideas and initiate projects. These managers make funding decisions and work closely with funded teams to resolve issues, but cut funding if the team fails to meet promised milestones on time. To do. Many DARPA projects are not spectacularly successful, but they push the boundaries of science and technology.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to work with a DARPA Program Manager, along with a number of experts from various scientific and medical fields. After months of meetings, program managers came up with the idea of ​​developing a “fracture putty,” a putty-like material that could be applied to the shattered bones of soldiers wounded on the battlefield. This material supports weight, prevents infection, promotes healing and bone regeneration, and eventually dissolves away. The program was launched in his 2008, and a team of chemists, nanomaterials experts, bioengineers, mathematical modelers and surgeons is one of the teams funded by the program.

who is the new director?

Wegrzyn holds a Ph.D. He holds a PhD in molecular biology and bioengineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is currently VP of Business Development at Ginkgo Bioworks, a US biotechnology company. Wegrzyn spent four and a half years as her program manager at DARPA’s Office of Biological Technologies, managing projects focused on using genetic engineering and gene editing for biosecurity and public health. did. She also worked with another DARPA-inspired agency, the She Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity.

At this time, we do not yet know the exact plans and progress regarding the hiring of an APAR-H Program Manager and where APAR-H’s headquarters will be located. Several cities have shown interest.

What should people look for when starting ARPA-H?

DARPA is driven by talented, ambitious, and risk-taking program managers. They generate ideas and turn lofty goals into actionable projects. It will be interesting to see how many program managers ARPA-H employs in its early stages and what types of program managers it employs.

We will also see how ARPA-H and its program managers work within the NIH, which has incredible resources and expertise in all healthcare-related areas that ARPA-H can leverage. is. However, NIH’s funding mechanisms and culture are very different from DARPA.

The final question is money. Biden says he wants $6.5 billion for ARPA-H, but so far he’s only gotten $1 billion from Congress. This is the first and biggest challenge. Finding political unity for funding may need to be the first big breakthrough for this new agency to reach its goals.