Chris Kaiser, the cell biologist who was to have taken the reins of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) this month, has withdrawn from the job, citing personal reasons.

Lawrence Tabak, the principal deputy director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where NIGMS is the fourth-largest of 27 institutes and centres, wrote the following yesterday in an e-mailed memo to acting NIGMS director Judith Greenberg:

“Chris Kaiser sent me a note today indicating that, with regret, for personal reasons he has decided to withdraw his candidacy for director of NIGMS. Please share with your staff as appropriate.”

Kaiser could not be reached for comment on short notice, and the NIGMS public-affairs office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last October, Kaiser, who heads the biology department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, told Nature that he is a “dyed-in-the-wool basic researcher” and that his priority as director of NIH’s basic-sciences institute would be to protect mainstay grants for basic scientists.

Judith Greenberg has been acting director of the US$2.4-billion institute since former NIGMS director Jeremy Berg left his job in June 2011. It has been a time of transition for the institute. With the establishment of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIGMS has been obliged to quickly absorb pieces from the now-defunct National Center for Research Resources — including the $276-million Institutional Development Award programme.  The programme supports research infrastructure in states with historically low success rates at winning NIH grants.