Michigan Professor to Head Gene Center

Dr. Francis S. Collins, co-discoverer of the cystic fibrosis gene, has been selected to become director of the National Center for Human Genome Research, sources said Thursday.

Collins, 42, a professor at the University of Michigan, is to take over directing the genetic center early next year, according to sources close to the leadership at the National Institutes of Health.

Johanna Schneider, spokeswoman in the office of NIH Director Dr. Bernadine Healy, declined to comment on the report.

The National Center for Human Genome Research is overseeing a massive effort by scientists in many centers to map the entire human genetic pattern. The project, expected to cost more than $1 billion and take more than a decade, calls for finding the location and describing the function of each of more than 100,000 genes that form the biological blueprint for humans.