MS. STEAD SELLERS: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post live. I’m Frances Stead Sellers, an associate editor here at The Post.
Today I'm delighted to welcome Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health. He was also recently appointed as the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Bhattacharya, a very warm welcome to Washington Post Live as we mark Rare Disease Week, and we're delighted to see you with that CDC backdrop.
DR. BHATTACHARYA: Yes, it's been interesting. It's my first week on the job in it, and I've been down in Atlanta meeting the folks, more collaboration between the NIH and the CDC. It's another rare thing to have the opportunity to lead both organizations, and so we can integrate our operations. It's going to be a big challenge, but I think also a lot of opportunities.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Great. Well, let's start talking at the beginning about NIH's focus. That's where you've been for longer. Tell us what the priorities are at NIH around rare diseases.
DR. BHATTACHARYA: Well, the NIH has a full portfolio of investments in studying rare diseases, developing treatments and cures, and then making them more widely available to populations, diagnosing them. And the NIH, one of the major assets that we have is a hospital called the Clinical Center where we have an undiagnosed disease network where we--and a rare disease sort of program where patients with rare conditions come.