Last month, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra issued notice formally establishing the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and appointing Dr. Adam Russell as its Acting Deputy Director. The Biden administration proposed the creation of ARPA-H to improve the U.S. government’s ability to speed up biomedical and health research. The agency will support high-risk, high-reward research to drive biomedical and health breakthroughs, a distinction between other government-funded health research that is often subject to thorough and lengthy bureaucratic processes.

Before joining ARPA-H, Dr. Russell was the Chief Scientist at the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security. He also spent more than a decade as a Program Manager, first at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) and then at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In his new role, Dr. Russell will oversee the development of the administrative structure for ARPA-H and manage the hiring of operational staff to get the agency up and running.

Impact on General Dentistry: The AGD continues to monitor developments related to the establishment of ARPA-H, an agency that has the potential to advance groundbreaking health research and developments that could transform the treatment of oral cancer and other diseases.