The mission of the U.S.National Institutes of Health (NIH),Department of Health and Human Services,includes support for biomedical research to extend healthy life by reducing the burdens of illness.To this end,the NIH seeks to address existing gaps related to the availability to the general public of NIH inventions,results and possible benefits of biomedical and behavioral research to people around the world.The NIH Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) is currently exploring ways to enhance the process of transferring technologies to developing countries.