The National Institutes of Health is opening new avenues for patient and clinician feedback as it scales artificial intelligence through the Bio Genesis Mission. Announced in July 2026, the initiative harnesses advanced computing across six scientific domains to accelerate biomedical innovation and healthcare translation.
The National Institutes of Health is systematically integrating patient and stakeholder perspectives as it increasingly adopts artificial intelligence through initiatives such as the Bio Genesis Mission. The effort forms part of a broader national strategy under Executive Order 14363, which launched the Genesis Mission in July 2026 to accelerate American science and secure domestic technological leadership. The Bio Genesis Mission represents a major initiative to accelerate biomedical discovery and improve health outcomes by leveraging artificial intelligence, advanced computing, innovative approaches to policy and governance, and public-private partnerships.
Co-Design Approach Across Biomedical AI Programs
Rather than simply bolting advanced algorithms onto existing research workflows, the agency is implementing a collaborative development model. NIH Chief AI Officer Bradley Bower emphasized the priority at the Special Competitive Studies Project’s AI+ Health Summit, stating, That's what we want. We want to see that active engagement in the community. Bower added that pretty much every new AI-focused program we're building up… all of them include a co-design approach where patients, clinicians, anybody that is engaged as a stakeholder in the process has to be involved.
Bradley Bower, NIH’s Chief AI Officer
This cooperative mandate spans multiple established NIH efforts. The AIM-AHEAD program, originally launched in 2021 to foster artificial intelligence expertise among biomedical researchers in underserved communities, relies on national networks of institutions and organizations to teach researchers how to harness AI for medical imaging, electronic health record data analysis and other applications. Those networks are now training researchers in keeping patients and communities engaged in research initiatives as the program moves into its next phase, said Bower.
Similar co-design frameworks are embedded in the precision medicine program PRIMED-AI and the dataset creation initiative Bridge2AI, ensuring patients, clinicians and other stakeholders shape AI development.
Six National Science and Technology Challenges
The Bio Genesis Mission serves as the biomedical anchor within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy framework, as well as the agency’s contribution to the Trump administration’s broader Genesis Mission. It seeks to double the pace of biomedical innovation by utilizing advanced computing to analyze large and complex datasets, helping researchers identify previously undetected patterns, generate new hypotheses and identify new treatments, according to an HHS press release. The Bio Genesis Mission is advancing science focused on six new National Science and Technology Challenges:
Predicting living systems: Using AI to model and forecast the behavior of complex biological systems.
Scaling biology for industrial leadership: Accelerating the path from biological discovery to domestic biomanufacturing and scaling biology for American industrial leadership.
Early detection and attribution of biological threats: Strengthening national biosecurity and biosurveillance capabilities.
Unlocking pediatric cancer cures: Applying AI to accelerate research on childhood cancers and unlocking pediatric cancer cures through artificial intelligence.
Accelerating drug discovery: Shortening the timeline from discovery to treatment, and accelerating drug discovery and clinical translation.
Understanding chronic disease: Using AI and advanced data resources to investigate the drivers of chronic illness and uncover the root causes of chronic disease.
Interagency Collaboration and Regulatory Pathways
Translating laboratory breakthroughs into patient care requires close cooperation across federal agencies. Bower noted that NIH is in the early stages of determining operational coordination with the Health and Human Services Department and other partners. Within that national framework, NIH is working in close partnership with the White House OSTP and other Genesis Mission agencies to advance the American Science and Security Platform, which integrates advanced computing, scientific facilities, data resources, and AI capabilities to accelerate discovery across the federal research enterprise.
Photo: nih.gov
“We are early in those conversations, sort of figuring out how all the pieces fit together. Early in the conversations of figuring out kind of how [the Health and Human Services Department] might coordinate those versus what NIH will help coordinate and lead,” Bradley Bower, NIH’s Chief AI Officer
Photo: Nextgov
To streamline this transition, NIH is working alongside the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to bring Bio Genesis Mission discoveries to patients. Bower highlighted that the FDA will help create a faster path to market for new discoveries that come from NIH’s initiative, noting that CMS, FDA and NIH are all interested in making sure things get translated to the market in a safe and effective way, and that things are validated appropriately. The HHS press release announcing the Bio Genesis Mission said NIH, FDA and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health would work together on the initiative.
Infrastructure Goals and Administrative Barriers
Building a scalable foundation for AI-driven biomedical discovery requires dismantling bureaucratic hurdles between government bodies. Within the next 12 months, Bower expects NIH will have solid infrastructure within the agency and across HHS to collaborate on the Bio Genesis Mission.
“What we’re looking at is lowering some of the barriers to how we work with other agencies. How do we get [a Memorandum of Understanding] in place faster? How do we get an interagency agreement in place faster?” Bradley Bower, NIH’s Chief AI Officer
