For his part, Collins, who has led NIH since 2009
and been kept on by the Trump administration, pointed to an array of promising NIH activities, including the development of new technologies to provide
insights into human brain circuitry
and function through the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neuroethologies (BRAIN initiative)
and the use of the
gene - editing tool CRISPR - Cas9 to correct mutations
and clear the way to develop
and test a «curative
therapy» for the first molecular disease: sickle
cell disease.