WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Health and Human Services is organizing a government-wide artificial intelligence initiative intended to cut in half the time required for biomedical discoveries to reach patients, with initial research focused on chronic disease, pediatric cancer and drug development.
The effort places HHS within President Donald Trump’s Genesis Mission, a federal program launched in November 2025 to combine artificial intelligence, advanced computing and government research resources.
The National Institutes of Health will lead the department’s Bio Genesis Mission, coordinating scientific data and research capabilities across NIH, the Food and Drug Administration and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
HHS plans to contribute biomedical research, genomics, public health and safety data to the program. The department stated that access will be governed by security and privacy protections.
Researchers will use the datasets and federal computing resources to identify patterns, develop hypotheses and locate potential pathways for disease prevention and treatment.
The department will also work with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to launch National Science and Technology Challenges designed to attract researchers from outside the federal government.
The flagship challenge will examine potential root causes of chronic disease, a priority included in the administration’s Make America Healthy Again strategy released in September 2025.
Additional challenges will focus on identifying new biological findings and treatment opportunities for pediatric cancers and applying AI to shorten drug-development timelines.
“Patients living with cancer, chronic disease, and rare conditions cannot afford to wait decades for scientific discoveries to reach them,” NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya stated.
The program seeks to accelerate several stages of biomedical research, including analysis of large datasets, identification of therapeutic targets and evaluation of potential treatments.
HHS did not specify funding levels, application procedures or launch dates for the planned research challenges.
The department framed the initiative as an effort to modernize the federal biomedical research system while expanding the use of AI across agencies responsible for research, product regulation and advanced health projects.
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