Fauci’s Longtime No. 2 Tapped to Head Infectious Disease Center

Anthony S. Fauci’s longtime deputy will take over as acting head of the NIH’s infectious disease institute once he steps down at the end of the month.

Transplant surgeon Hugh Auchincloss will serve as acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to a presentation at the National Institutes of Health Advisory Committee to the Director meeting Thursday. He will take on a role Fauci—who became a household name during the pandemic—has assumed for nearly four decades.

With a $6.3 billion budget, the NIAID is only second to the National Cancer Institute in size among the agency’s 27 institutes and centers. Fauci hasn’t named a specific final day of work yet but he’s on the books until the end of the year.

Auchincloss has been the NIAID’s principal deputy director since 2006. He currently oversees the institute’s strategic plan and heads an internal group to develop its initiatives. He’s leading an effort to change the NIAID’s clinical research infrastructure so it’s more flexible and available for domestic and international clinical research.

Fauci announced this summer that he would step down by the end of the year. He’s been with the agency since the late 1960s and has led the NIAID since 1984, making him the US government’s face for infectious disease outbreaks from HIV to Covid-19 and everything in between. He will also leave his post as President Joe Biden‘s chief medical adviser.

Auchincloss is the father of Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.). His daughter, Kalah Auchincloss, an executive vice president at Greenleaf Health, was the deputy chief of staff at the Food and Drug Administration during Commissioner Robert M. Califf’s first tour leading that agency. His other son, also named Hugh Auchincloss, is a thoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital.