NIH director talks about the organization and cystic fibrosis conference

The 23rd annual North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference is taking place in Minneapolis this weekend. More than 3,000 leading scientists and health care workers from around the world have gathered to talk about the latest treatment and research into the chronic lung disease.

A pioneer in Cystic Fibrosis research, Dr. Francis Collins, opened the conference last night. Collins was part of the team that 20 years ago, discovered the gene that causes CF.

Today, he is better known as the director of the National Institutes of Health - the biomedical research arm of the federal government.

President Obama called him "one of the top scientists in the world," when he nominated Collins to the post in June.

Dr. Collins talked with All Things Considered about cystic fibrosis and some of his other priorities in his new post at NIH.

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