Gary H. Gibbons to Retire as NHLBI Director

January 13, 2026

Gary H. Gibbons, MD, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will retire from federal service on Jan. 31. He has led NHLBI since 2012.

During his tenure, Gibbons championed the NHLBI’s TOPMed program, which supported the collection and analysis of whole genome, molecular and clinical data from more than 200,000 participants in 90 cohort studies. He also led NIH-wide initiatives like the Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Research Network and the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative, which aims to understand, diagnose, prevent and treat long COVID-19.

David Goff, MD, PhD, will serve as acting NHLBI director while a search for a new director is conducted.