Precision—or personalized—medicine tailored to individual 

differences in genes, environments and lifestyles can improve 

health and patient care while helping to control U.S. health care 

costs, now totaling $3 trillion annually. But for precision medicine to become a clinical reality, the measurements that drive 

treatment decisions must be reliable and the individualized 

therapies must be safely and efficiently manufactured. With 

improved measurement capabilities, progress in science—from 

genomics and tissue engineering to bioinformatics and nutrition—and medical technology can be harnessed. At the same 

time, this work can yield bioscience-based solutions to 

challenges in energy, food security, sustainable industrial 

products and more.

What NIST Does

• Develops the measurement tools necessary to further technology in key emerging areas, including microbiome research, 

regenerative medicine and synthetic biology.

• Creates repositories of reference materials and data to assure 

the quality of clinical and analytical measurements.

• Partners with other government agencies, industry and academia to establish best practices and standards.

BY THE 

NUMBERS

7+ billion 

Clinical lab tests 

are performed 

annually (American Clinical Laboratory Association)

10%

Of patient deaths 

are attributed to 

diagnostic errors

(Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, 2015)

4.3 billion

Prescriptions were 

filled in U.S. in 2014 

(IMS Health)

1.6+ million

People are 

employed by 

73,000+ U.S. bioscience businesses 

(Battelle/BIO, 2014)

$86 billion

Total U.S. medical exports 

in 2014 (Census)

www.nist.gov

HEALTH AND BIOSCIENCE AT NIST
Recent Program Highlights

• Issued the first DNA reference material that laboratories can 

use to assess how accurately their gene-reading machines and 

software are performing when analyzing patients’ genomes, or 

genetic blueprints.

• Launched a five-year research effort with an industry partner to 

develop tools and measurements that will be used in the development and production of biopharmaceuticals.

• Demonstrated the first calibration system for positron emission 

tomography (PET) scanners directly tied to national measurement standards. Better calibrations of the machines potentially 

can increase the accuracy of their diagnostic images by several 

times.

• Launched a collaborative project to develop cybersecurity solutions that protect wireless medical devices from unintended or 

unauthorized access and change, including malicious acts. 

New for FY 2017

NIST will expand its effort to improve the predictability of biomanufacturing processes. The request includes a $2 million increase to:

• Coordinate a measurement infrastructure to support expanded 

applications in biomanufacturing. NIST will convene stakeholders to identify measurement and standards needs and begin the 

creation of a community-driven pipeline of high-quality data. 

• Develop robust design and testing tools for biological systems. NIST will design methods for measurement of these systems, including developing new components for testing the function of engineered 

cells as “factories” to manufacture small molecule drugs and other products.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Dollars, in millions

FY 2017

Budget

FY 2015 FY 2016

47.9 47.9 49.9

Program Goals

• Provide a solid foundation 

of measurement assurance to enable reproducibility of biomedical research 

results and confidence in 

clinical decision-making.

• Increase the efficiency of biological manufacturing for biopharmaceutical and industrial 

applications by developing 

analytical tools to improve 

characterization of materials 

and in-process measurement.

• Develop the measurement infrastructure to 

enable the engineering of 

biological systems to harness 

the metabolic diversity of 

the natural world for human 

needs.