"Jeanne M. Marrazzo, a University of Alabama at Birmingham infectious-disease expert, will succeed Anthony S. Fauci this fall as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, federal officials announced Wednesday.

The $6.3 billion research institute is among the largest of the 27 institutes and centers that constitute the National Institutes of Health, America’s flagship biomedical agency. NIAID is also particularly prominent given its involvement in the response to the coronavirus pandemic and other diseases; it has also received attention because of Fauci’s own high profile and Republicans’ ongoing efforts to investigate the institute’s workings.

Marrazzo is likely to face scrutiny as soon as she arrives in Washington, if not before, from lawmakers and watchdog groups that have taken aim at NIAID’s operations. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and other Republicans have asserted that NIAID is too sprawling and have sought to split it into smaller institutes, an effort rebuffed by other lawmakers."

Dan Diamond and Rachel Roubein report for the Associated Press August 2, 2023. [2]