The US National Institutes of Health has appointed Alan Krensky to be its first deputy director for the Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives, or OPASI. Krensky, who will start the job on July 8, will oversee the Office’s position as an “incubator space to address critical research efforts in cross-cutting areas of NIH priorities,” NIH Elias Zerhouni said in a statement this week.
OPASI was created to “identify important areas of emerging scientific opportunities or rising public health challenges, and to help accelerate investments in these areas to make sure new ideas have a chance to develop,” according to the NIH.
Krensky comes to OPASI from StanfordUniversity, where he worked at the school of medicine as professor of pediatrics. He was also chief of the Division of Immunology and Transplantation Biology, associate chair for research in the Department of Pediatrics, and associate dean for Children's Health. He has an MD from the University of Pennsylvania.