Washington, April 1 (IANS) Jayanta 'Jay' Bhattacharya on Tuesday took over as the 18th Director of the US National Institutes of Health, which is the country’s premier medical research agency.

Dr Bhattacharya is one of the senior-most Indian-Americans in the Donald Trump administration. He was nominated to the position in November and was confirmed by the US Senate on March 25. The top Indian-American in this administration is Second Lady Usha Vance.

He will "play an instrumental role in shaping the agency’s activities and outlook and ensuring they align with the President’s Make America Healthy Again agenda", the NIH said.

"Under Dr Bhattacharya’s leadership, NIH will restore its commitment to gold-standard science," Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, said. "I'm excited to work with Dr. Bhattacharya to ensure NIH research aligns with our Administration’s priorities - especially tackling the chronic disease epidemic and helping to Make America Healthy Again."

Dr Bhattacharya said: "Chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity continue to cause poor health outcomes in every community across the United States. Novel biomedical discoveries that enhance health and lengthen life are more vital than ever to our country’s future."

"As NIH Director, I will build on the agency’s long and illustrious history of supporting breakthroughs in biology and medicine by fostering gold-standard research and innovation to address the chronic disease crisis."

Born in Kolkata, he earned BA and MA degrees in economics at Stanford University and then went on to earn a doctorate in medicine and a PhD in economics from the same university.

Dr Bhattacharya caught national attention in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak when he publicly opposed the lockdowns and the mask mandate.”We have grave concerns," Bhattacharya and his two co-authors wrote in a widely cited paper titled the “Great Barrington Declaration". "We have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing Covid-19 policies."