NIAID leadership – Three senior NIAID officials are being forced out under President Donald Trump’s second term, adding to a broader reshuffling of NIH leadership since early 2025. Staff describe the moves as unusually disruptive, while NIH leadership says the agency is pursuing
When three senior NIAID officials were told they must either accept reassignment outside the institute or resign, it landed as the latest jolt to a leadership structure already in flux since early 2025.
The U.S.. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has seen changes in nearly all of its senior leadership positions since early 2025.. Sources at NIAID say the three officials were given that choice—pushing the number of top departures further as President Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025.. Nature reported the developments with reporting from staff at NIAID.
The officials named as being forced out are Daniel Rotrosen. who has been the top scientist for the institute’s Division of Allergy. Immunology. and Transplantation for nearly 30 years; Kelly Poe. director of the Division of Extramural Activities. which manages the grant-related activities and policies of NIAID; and Andrea Wurster. Poe’s deputy.. All three also worked under Anthony Fauci, who served as director of NIAID for 38 years before stepping down in 2022.
Rotrosen was offered a reassignment in the NIH’s office for programme coordination and strategic initiatives.. Poe and Wurster were offered reassignments to the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD).. Staff members told Nature that they were not given reasons for their reassignments.
With these departures, scientists in most of the senior positions at NIAID will have been required to vacate their jobs.. The article notes that eight of the top 10 officials have now been pushed out since Trump took office.. All but one of those eight scientists worked under Fauci.. The removals come after NIH leadership already ousted Jeanne Marrazzo, successor to Fauci as NIAID director, last year.
The forced reshuffling has raised concern among researchers about stability and what it could mean for scientific priorities.. Betty Diamond. an immunologist at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset. New York. called the disruptions troubling. saying: “When you’ve spent years to put in place certain kinds of programmes and earn the trust and admiration of the scientific community. disruption for the sake of disruption is not useful.”
NIAID staff members who confirmed the reassignments to Nature requested anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.. NIH spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the NIH does not comment on personnel matters. but added that it “remains committed to maintaining strong scientific leadership across its institutes and centers”.
One element fueling unease is how unusual the moves are described to be.. Career scientists are typically not replaced when presidential administrations change. and the forced reassignments worry some scientists. who fear growing political influence over the institute. which has a yearly budget of US$6.6 billion.
Jennifer Troyer. who previously oversaw extramural operations at the National Human Genome Research Institute but resigned in December over concerns about political interference in scientific review at the NIH. characterized the NIAID reassignments as “major demotions”.. She points to the scale difference between the institutions: the NIAID’s budget is more than ten times that of the NIMHD. and the Trump administration has tried to shutter NIMHD twice but has so far been blocked by Congress.
At the heart of the dispute is what NIAID is meant to prioritize.. In a meeting on 30 January. Jayanta Bhattacharya—who serves as NIH director—along with other top agency officials outlined a new vision for NIAID.. The plan reorients the institute toward research on infectious diseases affecting the United States today. rather than research on how to prepare for the next pandemic.. Bhattacharya’s vision also emphasizes basic immunology and calls for a move away from research into HIV/AIDS and biodefence.. Those subjects and pandemic preparedness, Bhattacharya said, were Fauci’s legacy.
Among those fired or reassigned last year were the division chiefs who oversaw research into HIV/AIDS and into infectious diseases and microbiology.
The pattern tied to leadership change is drawn tightly: in January 2025. Trump’s second term begins; by early 2025. changes appear across nearly all senior NIAID leadership positions; and by May 2026. eight of the top 10 leadership slots are described as having been vacated. with Fauci-linked scientists forming nearly all those departures.
Scientists and NIH officials who spoke to Nature said they worry the reshaping could change what science the institute funds in ways driven more by politics than merit.. One senior NIH official told Nature that division directors are typically stable roles held for a long time. arguing that if there is to be a shift in priorities. “you’d probably go for that role.”
The departures are also leaving a leadership gap. Seven of the ten positions in the NIAID leadership will now lack a person serving in a permanent capacity.
That personnel instability echoes a broader trend across NIH itself.. The article says 16 of the NIH’s 27 institutes and centres currently lack permanent directors after the previous leaders resigned. retired. or were effectively terminated by the Trump administration.. It adds that 14 of the 16 left or were ousted after Trump took office.
The removals arrive as the Trump administration takes additional steps involving scientists tied to COVID-19 research.. On 28 April, the U.S.. Department of Justice indicted David Morens, a former adviser to Fauci, for allegedly concealing federal records related to COVID-19 grants.. On 7 May, the U.S.. Department of Health and Human Services proposed a ban on federal funds to long-time coronavirus researcher Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. for allegedly “deceptive” communications with NIAID officials. Science reported.
Trump and other Republican politicians have argued that public-health measures used during the pandemic caused the public to lose trust in the country’s health agencies.. During that period. Fauci offered recommendations on how to prevent the spread of the virus. but neither Fauci nor NIAID set policy for public-health programmes.
Fauci declined to comment for this story.
The article was first published on May 15, 2026, and is reproduced with permission.
NIAID NIH infectious disease Trump administration Jayanta Bhattacharya Anthony Fauci Daniel Rotrosen Kelly Poe Andrea Wurster covid-19 research David Morens Ralph Baric scientific leadership immunology HIV/AIDS research